A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale
by Ai-louij
Summary: On her fifteenth birthday avarage school girl Kagome Higurashi falls into the old, dry well of the shrine she lives in and... breaks her neck! But that, surprisingly, is just the beginning... Chapter 14 up.
1. Black

**Inuyasha - A parallel dimensional fairytale**

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Prologue 1

Black

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Disclaimer: I don't own the series Inuyasha, neither the manga nor the anime.

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Blackness.

As her mind slowly escaped unconsciousness it was the first thing she saw, or rather did not see.

By the time she was fully awake she realized she was surrounded by darkness. A darkness that was neither the twilighty kind you encounter at night, lying in your bed trying to sleep although you are sure the darkness lodges weird beings intending to cut off the tip of your nose as soon as you fall asleep, or the cinematic kind where, while it is supposed to be dark, you still can make out every important detail.

No.

Not at all.

This was something she did not remember ever having experienced. It was the mother of all darknesses, the absolute, pure absence of light.

'Oh well', she thought dizzily 'Might just as well close my eyes.', and drifted back into unconsciousness again.

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Some time later she awoke again, what time though, she had no idea.

But this time the process of awaking had not passed as slowly as before.

She had jolted awake as an unknown feeling had tickled something inside of her like electricity but it seemingly had passed now.

Her surroundings had not changed a bit, or maybe they had, she couldn't be too sure as there was still not even the slightest ray of light cutting through the darkness. Concentrating on the next best of her senses, she soon found that not only she could not see anything but also could not hear any noise, not even - and that, to say the least, irritated her a lot - the ever present noise of her own breathing. Concentrating on her body she realized that in fact she could not feel her ribcage contracting and expanding in a way that would have indicated any lung activity.

'So... I guess that means I'm not breathing,' she thought perplexedly. 'But what does THAT mean? I mean why would I not be breathing? Gods, this must be some sick dream I'm having. Yeah, that's probably it. A dream. Alright... but why would I dream about being unconscious and then waking to find myself in... nothing?'

She sighed... or rather tried to and failed for she currently seemed lacking the required equipment to produce that kind of noise.

Thinking about it harder, she found she was not sure she felt her own body the way she was used to. Like when you know you have arms because you can feel gravity pulling them down and you know you have legs because you can feel them touch your trousers or skirt.

' This is some stupid kind of dream. I mean if I sum that up I'm probably floating through a room full of nothing either naked or bodiless though I tend to believe the latter... This seriously sucks! That's really just boring! I mean aren't dreams supposed to be a way of the unconscious to cope with and sort out the things that happen to you throughout the day or something like that? Really I don't remember ever having... FUCK!'

She stopped dead in her inner ramblings, shocked, when in the moment she thought the word she realized that in fact she did not remember _anything at all_. She desperately scanned her own mind as best she could but found nothing.

No memory of any events before her first awakening in this dream, a dream that she began to doubt really was a dream.

Not the slightest hint on what her name was, where she lived, or even how old she was.

The only thing she seemed to remember was some general knowledge on physics for she knew of the phenomenon called gravity and obviously some on psychology as she had some kind of an idea what dreams were normally supposed to be like, but that information just seemed to pop up in her head as soon as she needed it. She had no idea where it came from.

So all she possessed at the moment was that knowledge, hinting she'd experienced some sort of education, as well as a distant idea what her body normally felt like.

But most importantly she felt something that was best described as a deeply rooted sense of femininity.

'So I'm a woman. That's not much but something at least. So I probably have a woman's name like - '

"Kagome?"

"H-I-..Higurashi Kagome?"

Her eyes, she wasn't so convinced she had had a second before, snapped open at the voice suddenly invading the silence to search for its source only to be greeted by a blazingly bright light, blinding her completely with its intensity.

She groaned in agony and shut her eyes again.

While they got used to this sudden change, the light still painful even through her eyelids, she could hear an impatient sigh and the sound of someone shifting position. Opening her eyes again she could finally make out the source of the light: A door-shaped opening leading to a brightly lit room of some kind. In that opening stood the probable source of the voice, a tall figure she could only see the shape of because the light came from the room behind that person.

Then said figure spoke again in a rough and unmistakably male voice, slowly and with feigned patience as if she were some retarded child that needed its extra time to understand such a simple question:

"Are - you - Ka - go - me - Hi - gu - ra - shi?"

Opening her mouth to snap at this rude... boy... she guessed by his voice, she realized that she really could make good use of that extra time. She had no idea. 'Am I Kagome Higurashi? Well maybe... that name sure sounds familiar so..' "...Yes...?"

Another sigh, then, "Keh! What's that supposed to mean? You stupid or something? I mean either you know who you are or you don't... or do you? ...wait lemme see..."

The boy looked at something in his right hand that appeared to be a piece of paper.

"Alright, here it says you have fallen on your head and therefore might need to hear some more facts about yourself to remember so ... listen, bitch, does that sound familiar to you?"

Getting more enraged by the boy with every insult he threw in her face so nonchalantly, she tried to concentrate on what he read to her, her need to find any solution to the mess she found herself in momentarily outweighing the need to strangle him for calling her 'bitch'.

"Kagome Higurashi." He read, "15 years, seven hours, forty minutes, thirty-two seconds, five... nah that won't help you any.''

He paused to check her reaction but when she showed no signs of recognition he continued.

"Living in an ancient Buddhist shrine in Tokyo, Japan, with her mother, grandfather, and little brother? Attending junior high school? Does that ring a bell?"

'Somehow... '

"Hey wait! If you are fifteen years and a few hours old that means you had your birthday today. Now do you remember that perhaps? Look I'd really like to cut this short and get the hell out of here to-"

"Damn it! Yes!" she screamed.

"Kagome. That's my name. Now I got it ... Mama, Souta, Jii-chan, my birthday and the dried Kappa hand -ugh that was gross- , Buyo ahhh that's - whoa! Wait a second! How's it you know all this stuff about me? What's that paper you got there? What's going on here? Where the fuck is my body-"

"How about right where you left it, bitch? Right beneath that loud mouth of yours."

"Eh? What are you talking about?"

"Your body. You asked where it was. But if I'm not delusional, which I'm not, though you are apparently, I'd say it's right in front of me where it should be."

"What the..."

She tilted her head down, which was odd enough as she was sure without a body that should have been impossible, and was greeted by the pleasant sight of a girl's body, presumably hers, clad in her sailor suit-like school uniform, the old one, worn out and still a little too small, but the one she _now_ remembered having put on that morning. Hesitantly, she raised her head again, lifting a hand to touch her face and her fingertips met the familiar curves and edges that formed her face. It was then she realized that the feeling of floating was gone, replaced by the much less disturbing feeling of her feet touching the ground and gravity doing its job properly and keeping them there.

She released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and smiled, happy to at least have her body back.

She was so glad she even found herself willing, in a moment of generosity, to forgive the boy for calling her delusional when he groaned impatiently and spoke again, "Look, bitch, I'm really happy for you that you found each other again, you and that runaway body of yours, but just as I said I really wanna get the hell out of here so let's just get this through -" He waved with the sheet in his hand. "- and then you two can have a big party, OK?"

'That's it. Forget generosity, forget forgiving that asshole.'

"You bastard! Who do you think you are? You think this is funny? Well I don't cause I don't have some paper telling me what's going on or why I am here. I am just scared as hell and am NOT going to take any shit from you asshole . And now fucking step back so I can see your stupid face while you are answering my questions!" She screamed, still being very much stressed out by the whole situation and her already weakened tolerance for the boy's attitude finally being destroyed by his patronizing tone.

He did not step back though. Instead he took a step forward so fast Kagome didn't realize what was going on until he towered over her and in a low voice snarled, "Bitch! Who do _I_ think I am? Keh! Just who do _you_ think you are? Ordering me around like that. Just as you said, I got the answers to your questions in my hands so you better behave or I'm just gonna leave you here despite what those stupid papers tell me to do. You got that? And don't you fucking dare call me bastard again, wench!"

He took a breath and in a little calmer but once again patronizing voice said, "Now if you ask me nicely enough I might feel like answering to you."

His teeth flashed whitely even in the meager light as he stepped back again, obviously grinning.

Kagome bit her tongue forcefully as she tried to subdue her temper because really, as much as she hated to admit it, that jerk probably was the only orientation she had to find a way out of the mess she found herself in right now. At the same time she tried to hide the fact that her knees were still shaking slightly, he had scared her a lot after all, suddenly appearing in front of her, staring at her, his eerily gleaming eyes narrowed to slits.

Finally, when she considered it safe to open her mouth and not verbally abuse him, she managed to articulate a somewhat polite demand, struggling to keep the sarcasm out of it, "Now if you'd 'please' be so kind as to take a few steps back so I am able to leave this room and finally see who I'm talking to, as well, then have the generosity to answer some rather urgent questions I have, my thankfulness really would know no ending."

Well, she had tried.

But the boy seemed satisfied enough, smugly saying, "You see? Wasn't too hard, was it?"

And his grin grew even wider from what she could see.

"No." 'No. Just makes me wanna scratch your eyes out.'

"Right, now I am gonna go into that room behind me BUT -"

He stopped her when she tried to step forward eager to leave the creepy nothing behind her.

"BUT you have to promise me not to freak out and scream or anything."

'Scream? Freak out? What the..?'

"No, I mean yes I won't scream I promise."

'I'll try at least... what's up with that boy?'

Then, finally, he turned around and took a few steps into the white room behind him, closely followed by Kagome, who cast a last look back into the darkness she came out of. She turned her head and found him standing in front of her tensely, looking at her rather insecurely now, contradicting what he had shown of his personality so far, as if he was expecting her to scream despite her promise not to.

So she stood and watched him closely searching for the reason he'd made her promise that.

But she found nothing offending or scaring in his appearance, quite the opposite in fact.

The very, very opposite really.

He was, she decided, one of the, if not the, most handsome boy or man she'd seen in her life.

He was tall, she didn't even reach to his shoulder she estimated. Well built, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. Muscular all over but in the slim kind of way from what she could see through his red t-shirt an jeans. His face was contradicting the adult build of his body with its rather boyish, but breathtaking nonetheless, features. Cheekbones at the perfect height, a natural, very slight tan and a mouth that could only be described as perfect, just like his nose.

Most striking, though, were his eyes. Now Kagome understood why they had gleamed the way they had even in the twilight of the room behind them. They were just as large as they were golden, not yellow or light brown but warm, molten gold.

And staring into her own at that very moment with all sorts of unreadable emotions flickering through them.

His eyes and the unique tone of his hair, a silvery, very light blond she guessed, although it rather appeared to be silvery-white, gave him an exotic touch, and combined with that Adonis body and his wild and somehow animal aura... she felt herself nearly sway a little when her whole gut clenched and all kinds of fluttering insects seemed to choose that moment to come to life in her stomach as those incredible eyes continued to stare into her own.

'WOW! Such a shame he's such an arrogant jerk. This is just ...wait! what's that on top of his head?'

When she opened her mouth to ask just that, hesitating at the boldness of the question he flinched, probably expecting her to scream now, and the movement on top of his head confirmed what she had guessed. So she just went ahead and asked,

"Are those dog-ears?"

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.A.N. Edited 5/19/05. I guess it's a lot more pleasant to read now.


	2. White

**A parallel dimensional fairytale**

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Disclaimer: Guess what I don't own...

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Prologue 2

White

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This really wasn't gonna be his day and he should have known.

He had awoken with a start as his heart had done a painful beat, his nose informing him immediately that he was at some unknown place and alone, thus not in direct danger, but still his body had reacted instinctively and he fell to the ground in a defensive crouch within a matter of seconds.

Surprisingly his joints cracked loudly and his muscles ached as if they had not been used for quite a while. This confused him because as far as he remembered the last time he had used them had been almost directly before he fell asleep the other night.

'Odd'

He then considered opening his eyes but decided to wait a little longer, as the room he found himself in, he'd guessed it was a rather large and empty room by the way the walls reflected the little noise he'd been producing, had been brightly lit, too brightly for his sensitive eyes even through his eyelids. He'd relaxed a little and tried to figure out were he was and what was going on while he'd gotten used to the light.

Having concentrated on his excellent sense of smell he soon found that the room strangely seemed to be lacking any scent of its own. Normally even a totally empty room smelled at least of wood, paint or of the paste used to fix the wallpapers, but he'd smelled nothing besides what he'd recognized as his own scent and the very faint smell of paper and ink.

As soon as the greenish blur behind his eyelids faded into a natural pink one, he'd carefully opened his eyes, struggling some as they'd seemed to be unnaturally dry, blinking a few times to moisten them and taken in the sight that presented itself to him.

He'd indeed been crouched down with his back to the white wall of a large circular room with nothing in it, not even any recognizable source of light and, to his distress, also without any visible exit.

He'd gotten up slowly and once again his joints protested, not as loudly as before though, and turned around to see what it was he had fallen down from after waking up but found the wall behind him empty expect for a slight deepening in the form of a man's body, probably his own.

'...Right... So I was, like, glued to that wall then woke up and fell down... this makes no sense at all! How's that supposed to work? How'd I even get into this room? It fucking has no visible opening.'

Utterly confused he'd turned around again and started to walk along the wall searching for a hidden door or another way out but he'd circled the room without success.

He'd glanced upwards intending to check out the ceiling but simply found none. The wall enclosing him seemed to reach up endlessly, at least too high for him to distinguish any ending.

It was about then he started to panic, circling the room once again and then another time. He'd even tried to destroy the wall with his claws several times but they'd just slithered across the surface as if it was made of unbreakable glass.

If there was one thing he hated, maybe even was afraid of, it was being locked up inside a room without escape. He wasn't claustrophobic, it didn't matter whether the room was large or small, he just never felt at ease without the sky and behind that the endlessness of the universe above him.

He'd turned around helplessly and then spotted something on the floor in the middle of the room the same moment as the faint scent of paper and ink hit his nose again.

He'd leaped towards it immediately and picked it up.

It was a letter, handwritten and addressing...him.

_Inuyasha_

_I assume you have a large number of questions right now and I can assure you, you will have them answered, just not now. A full explanation would cost too much time, time you don't have, for right now there are some more urgent matters to be taken care of. You'll have to go with the most basic facts for the moment._

_Before you read this though, I must insist you take this letter seriously, dead seriously to be specific. _

_So here are some facts that should help you understand your current situation, both in the geographical and the metaphorical meaning of the word:_

_You are dead._

Inuyasha stared at the letter unbelievingly. 'Dead? But...'

_Your date of death is November 17th, 1984._

_You died, you might or might not remember that, by severe alcohol poisoning (Considering you are a hanyou and have a resistance to any kind of poison that is about two hundred times higher than humans standards, that _is _quite an achievement I would say.), or you would have, if you hadn't choked on your own vomit first._

He'd frowned, thought, then remembered. 'Yeah I had this feeling I could have overestimated my capacity a little... the whole 'drink yourself to sleep' thing had recently begun to turn into more of a 'drink yourself to unconsciousness' thing, after all.' But then he fell asleep, and everything had been alright, or so he thought. 'Choked on my own vomit? That's gross... but sure has tradition at least.'

_Your soul, though, could not be released into reincarnation for it has a certain purpose to fulfill you will hear of later. Therefore, it was kept, in storage you could say, in the soul depot you find yourself in at the moment, to be released and given something I'll just call a body to make things easier for now._

_In a few minutes you'll meet a girl. She's dead, just like you, but died only a few hours ago on May 19th, 2004. (You have been dead for almost twenty years now as you can see.)_

"Twenty Years? Fuck!"

_Her name is Kagome Higurashi._

_Your meeting with her is of the utmost urgency you can imagine. I am not exaggerating if I say the fate of the universe lies in yours and Kagome's hands. You are to explain the things mentioned in this letter to her and don't even think of doing otherwise for that girl is your only way out of here._

_To meet her, you have to open the door on the opposite part of the wall you were stored at. To do so all you have to do is put the palms of your hands against that wall and say, ''Kagome''_

_That girl, Kagome, will most probably first appear to be helplessly confused, which is because she fell..._

He'd stopped reading. He'd needed no further information (or so he'd thought). There it was finally, his way out! Not wasting another second he'd spotted the place indicated in the letter and leaped towards it. He'd put the letter into his rear pocket and his hands against the wall.

"Kagome"

First nothing seemed to happen. Then the wall beneath his hands wavered slightly and a piece of the wall, about the shape of a small door disappeared.

Had he known by then what awaited him he was certain he would never have stepped through that door.

Well, first everything seemed alright. The girl was where she was supposed to be and awake, the problem with her memory had been easy enough to solve to not really bother him.

When she exploded like that at the comment he'd made about her acting like she'd never had a body before, he should have known she was going to cause him trouble. She had really been acting weird and he just had not been able to suppress the urge to joke about that. So what, he'd not wanted to insult her... not much at least... OK so maybe a little, that was not the point.

But when she'd screamed at him like that and tried to tell him what to do, when she should have begged him to help her out of the whole mess they were in, he'd been the one to explode.

He'd thought he'd done a good job scaring her a little, showing her who was the boss and so on, and she more or less seemed to submit. She was just a little girl after all, and so, when she'd asked him to step back so she could see his face he'd seen no reason not to.

There was just one factor he had not paid attention to up to then, not that he really was to blame under the circumstances.

Inuyasha was a hanyou, half human and half dog-demon, living among humans in world where youkai had become so rare that mankind didn't even know of them existing.

He had a few rules set up for himself to make life among humans possible.

The first and most important rule was to conceal any signs of his youkai heritage, and so he hid his strength and speed (OK to say he hid them was a little exaggerated perhaps... let's say he showed them to a level that was veeery impressive but not humanly impossible), as well as he ALWAYS wore some hat or bandanna or anything to cover his ears.

But when he died, it had been night, he had been alone in his apartment except for 'Uncle Vodka' and thus had not worn any headgear.

Unfortunately, he was not aware of that fact until that girl asked him to step back and thankfully he remembered then, just in time, but found himself unable to deny her that request, as well as he realized she was going to see him eventually, either now or when she would try to fight her way out of that room if he kept denying her the exit, feisty as she seemed to be.

So he'd thought it would be the best to just get through with it now and he'd spoken some words of warning or well, rather had begged her not to freak out, and stepped back, pondering on how this was just not going to be his day.

He planned to be on guard and prepare for her sure to come scream. But his body gained control over his mind once again, (something he had gotten used to as the prolonged lifespan of a youkai came along with a ridiculously long period of adolescence) and he forgot that plan immediately at the sight of her combined with her scent washing over him as she exited the dark room.

He had lived a long life and seen innumerable beautiful women and girls but he was sure she was the most beautiful one.

She wore one of those sailor suit school uniforms that always seemed to have been designed solely to awake the nastiest fantasies, in every healthy man, anyway. But, seeing her, he wondered what her mother had thought she was doing when she let her daughter go to school in a uniform that fit her so well... too well.

The green skirt contradicted everything he knew about school dress codes (not that he had actually ever really been to school) and barely covered the thighs of her smooth, long legs and the blouse was not only so short that he caught glimpses of her abdomen as she moved, but also seemed to be a little... OK maybe way too tight, accentuating her... womanly assets in a way that made it impossible for him not to notice them moving.

Inuyasha swallowed and struggled to tear his eyes of her almost overly curvy body, bouncing as she came to a halt in front of him, and looked at her face instead.

He was glad she was not facing him that moment because he was sure that one look into her eyes would have been enough and he would have been done for.

While her body was quite a sight, impossibly curvy for a fifteen year old school girl (maybe not that, but way too curvy for him to feel comfortable), her face, framed by long, black, wavy hair, was simply breathtaking, eerie almost with her fair porcelain skin shimmering in the white light (Or did she shimmer herself? He wasn't quite sure).

Her face, somewhere between oval and round, was adorned by a sweet nose, lips red and like those of a doll and, beneath elegantly curved black eyebrows, the most beautiful silvery blue gray eyes, large and framed by endlessly long lashes.

Staring in amazement and staring and staring he felt almost hypnotized and trapped by her eyes, like he was falling into them. Therefore, it was a real miracle that he caught the movement of her eyes the moment her gaze traveled further upwards, but he did, and when he saw her expression turn into a puzzled one all he thought was, 'Fuck. She saw them.'

Expecting her to scream, he flattened his ears to his skull when she opened her mouth and was positively surprised when she did not scream but in an insecure tone just asked, "Are those dog ears?"

His first urge was to just deny the existence of his ears and tell her to get a good therapist to help her with those delusions but he suppressed it.

That would only get her pissed off again and would not get him out any faster. Her reaction hadn't been as bad as he expected it to be anyway so he just decided to go with the truth.

"Yeah, sort of."

"Are they real? I mean are those your real ears?"

"Yes."

He brushed away the hair besides his face that would normally have covered his human ears. "You see? No ears there."

"So you are not human or something? Are you, like, a dog-human thingy? Some genetic experiment? Or did you have your normal ears replaced by those?"

"No! Why would anyone do that?"

"Who knows... What are you, then?"

"Look I'd love to explain this to you but at the moment we really don't have the time for this. We have to get out of here first and then I'm gonna tell you about me, OK?"'Like hell.'

"Out of here? Oh yeah. Where are we, anyway? You were gonna answer that. And also why I am here... so?"

'Damn those bastards who ever they are. Why do I have to tell her? It's not like I really know anything myself. _You would know if you had just_ _finished reading that letter. _Be quiet, I know that. Arrgh what to say...'

"You are dead." '_Uh, veery sensitive_.'

"N-What?"

"Dead. You died today. What's the last thing you remember doing? Probably was something you should not have done."

"...I ..I went after Buyo, my cat, he... he'd fallen down that old well again... or so I thought... but I stared as hard as I could and I didn't spot him... then... Damn! He suddenly appeared at my legs and I started up and slipped... and I fell over the rim of the well... but it isn't that deep, why am I dead?"

"Well, sounds like you fell in head first so you probably broke your neck." '_Even more sensitive._'

"...I'm dead? Dead? Are you an angel then? Is this like heaven or something?"

"I have no idea." 'An angel?'

"What? B-but... "

"You see, that's why I wanna get out of here as fast as possible. I don't really know what is going on myself. I'm dead too, you know, but I got this letter and it says someone's gonna tell me once I am out of here. And to get out of here I had to meet you and then... then!"

"What then?"

"Well I haven't read the letter that far. I thought the door to you was also the door out but it doesn't seem to be like that. So if you just keep quiet for a second, I'll see what we have to do next."

He fished the letter out of his pocket and unfolded it.

"No wait. Let me read, too."

She tried to snatch the letter from his hands but he held on to it.

"No way. That's my letter and I'm gonna read it. Stop tugging. You are gonna rip it, stupid bitch."

"I told you not to call me bitch again. And your reading skills obviously can't be trusted as you failed to read the letter before so let me read it. I can read it out loud if you want to."

"Bitch."

"Illiterate Moron."

"Delusional Cow."

"Getting along well already, I see?"

They stared at each other for a second then turned their heads to see who had suddenly appeared and spoken those words.

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A.N.: Edited 5/19/05

Whatever made me believe for one second that the first part was readable... well I hope it's better now.


	3. Monks, mighty maidens and metaphysics

Inuyasha – A parallel dimensional fairytale

Chapter 3

Monks, Mysterious Maidens and Metaphysics

More or less in the middle, a man apparently appeared out of thin air, a young man actually, with a short black ponytail, wearing some purple and black robes, both, Inuyasha and Kagome, identified as traditional monk's robes. He smiled then spoke again and at the same time started walking towards them.

"I'm glad you two already went through the 'getting to know each other part' so we can start right away with the more pressing matters. As to the letter you two were just discussing about, forget it, all it would have told you was to await my arrival, which you did anyway - Ah!"

He interrupted himself and shook his head as Kagome and Inuyasha just continued to stare at him. "Excuse my rudeness, will you please? I haven't even introduced myself properly. My name is Miroku and I'm a man of faith as you can see." He gestured along his attire. "Or rather have been as I technically am just as dead as you two love-birds, even if with the advantage of a few hundred years of afterlife experience."

"Where - "

"How - "

"Yes, I do realize you have a lot of questions right now but I must insist they be postponed until later. Now I want you to come over here and just do as I say for a second and we should be out of here in no time."

They both just stared at him numbly but then proceeded to shake off the paralysis of surprise and stepped to the man's, Miroku's, side.

He smiled once again. "All I want you to do is just empty your minds of all thoughts for a second and leave the rest to me, alright?"

"Keh, can't be too much to ask from her obviously," Inuyasha muttered under his breath the same moment as Kagome said quietly, "Well at least one of us won't have any problems with that".

Their heads snapped around and they glared at each other, scowls already forming on their faces, but Miroku interrupted before they got a chance to start throwing insults at each other all over again. "Empty your minds of all thoughts, remember? Just concentrate for a second and I'll bring us away from here and then your questions will be answered... well, most of them. Please, just concentrate now."

"Keh."

"OK."

They did as they were told and concentrated on, well, nothing and suddenly found themselves standing inside a much smaller room, looking more like an average living room, with a couch, two armchairs and a table in it.

On one of those armchairs sat a girl with a pretty, yet somewhat sorrowful face, which made her look rather more like a woman than a girl, wearing a colourful kimono. She looked at them without surprise like she had known they would just suddenly appear right in front of her.

When she opened her mouth to speak she was rather abruptly interrupted by Inuyasha who decided to verbalize his disagreement with how none of his questions had found any answers so far the very same moment (Or that's how he would have put it. Actually he was just beginning to get a little anxious to get out, the fact that this room happened to have a ceiling, and a rather low one, too, didn't help that any.). "No wait up, wench! Before you start talking incomprehensible shit like that bouzu tell me one thing. Are you the one who's gonna tell me how the fuck I can get away from here or what that purpose is I was 'kept in storage' for the last twenty fucking years? 'Cause if you're not I really don't give a shit what it is you were going to say and I'll just find my own way out. You got that?"

The young woman raised an eyebrow at his outburst, then chuckled slightly. "Now as much as I would love to see how you think you can 'find your own way out', you'll be glad to hear that I really am the one to answer your as well as her, " she motioned her head in Kagome's direction, "questions I am sure you are eager to have answered. Now as far as I know, you, Kagome, already are informed about the basics, like your death and - "

"No, actually" Kagome admitted "That's already about everything I know. What's he been talking about when he said he was kept in storage? And why does he have those..." she pointed to his ears, "dog ear thingies?", at which Inuyasha flattened said ears to his skull and shot her a defensive glare, "Keh!"

"I promise I'll get to that. Now please take a seat, the whole thing might take quite a while."

Inuyasha and Kagome sat down on the couch, first instinctively rather close to one another, then realizing that, quickly scooting apart and looked at her expectantly.

"You see, in order to understand why it is so important that you two are here, I'll have to explain a whole lot of other things to you first. Both of you probably have already come across different theories concerning the universe, its origin, the question of parallel dimensions and such. Now, all these theories are great and some really are not that far from the actual truth but up to now no-one ever got the whole thing right.

"So, firstly the universe is endless. Secondly there do exist different universes, or dimensions, at the same time in a way that could be called parallel. In fact the amount of universes is infinite which is what makes the whole universe infinite, logically. Also every one of these universes is endless itself.

"Now the problem, as you might realize, is: how do endless spaces exist at the same time inside a space that is only just as big as that itself? Well, here I'd like to quote a great mathematician, I love her work, really, she's not from your dimension though, with her definition of the infinite-"

Miroku, in contrast to the woman, having watched Kagome and Inuyasha while she gave them a little lecture on metaphysics, saw stheir eyes glaze over by the time she mentioned the word infinite the second time, and thus realized the necessity of interrupting her before she managed to kill them a second time either by boredom or information overload. "Sango, dear, I do realize just how much you love to show off that impressive opus of yours but is this really the right time? These kids are here for a purpose, I might remind you, and a rather important one it is, too. So, seeing as your mother's pride just won't let you cut this short I suggest you leave the explaining of only the necessary basics to me."

"Yeah," the woman, named Sango obviously, looked at the 'kids' in question half disappointedly half sheepishly. "They don't seem to be interested anyway... it's a shame really. Whatever happened to all those great thinkers and creative minds that dimension used to deliver? They were quite an entertainment."

She made a vague gesture with her hand. "You're right, the basics will do. You do it then."

"Great." Miroku turned towards Inuyasha and Kagome again. "Now let's see.. Yes just imagine the whole parallel dimension thing like it is described in films and books and such. It's not exactly what it is like but you don't need the more abstract version to understand our problem.

"Right... You see these dimensions differ in many ways but they basically have a few things in common. The structure of the universe is the same for each of them for example. There is no planet in one dimension that did not exist in every other one at the beginning, but from that moment on the force one might think is coincidence, but is really rather something like godwill, had things develop into any direction possible.. But still, and this is where you come in as you will see soon, every, let us say, soul of any consciously thinking being has its counterpart in every other universe.

"That does not mean that there is an exact copy of you in every dimension, though. The 'soul' is not a product of the mind or something but is some kind of a pattern, a structure, but it is nothing physical. It's, you could say, it's one of many links between all the universes, a ...well, anyway you have this unique pattern of your own linked to your consciousness in a way and as long as you live, everything you experience, every emotion you feel imprints itself into your 'soul' and forms it but the structure itself remains.

"Perhaps it helps if you imagine the whole thing like a piece of iron. You can heat it and form it any way you like, just like all the souls that are considered counterparts to one another can develop very differently, but it still remains the very same piece of iron. So every sword and every kettle forged out of the same ore will have one thing in common, their atomic structure, like all those counterparts who share a soul structure.

"Now the material that soul is made of, it's not really a material as it does not consist of molecules, is the same material that is between the dimensions which is also where souls return to when the body dies. There they are neutralized again and sent back to the dimension. And this is exactly what happened to you two. You've died and gone to heaven, one could say. Can you follow me so far?"

Miroku looked at Kagome and Inuyasha to search their faces for signs of understanding or acceptance but they both just stared at him, Kagome incredulously and Inuyasha incredulously and pissed off.

He sighed. "You know I do realize all of this is rather hard to believe or even understand but I can assure you what I am telling you is the truth. If you don't believe this then what do you think is going on here?"

"Keh! I've had weirder trips already. I mean who knows what that shit really consisted of? You never know with Soviet vodka. You're lucky if it's only spirit they mix in there," Inuyasha stated flippantly.

Kagome shot him an inquisitive glare and wondered 'Vodka? What on earth is he talking about?' but let that slide in favour of , "Well I know for sure that this is no dream, I pinched my arm more than twenty times already and it hurt all the time... Hah! That's right! If, as you say, we are in that 'interdimension-thingy' and have left our bodies back in our dimension then why do I feel the pain? That should not be possible without a body, right?"

"Yes you are right. Theoretically your brain cannot register pain without a body and nerves and so on, considering that you don't even have a brain in this state that really seems impossible. But keep in mind, if you have no body by the general physical definition then you also have no hand to inflict that pain.

"What you are feeling is your consciousness reacting to an impulse that is similar to but not exactly identical with the usual pain impulse, your soul being pinched, you could say. Your self is so used to the circumstances inside your dimension and at the same time unable to really comprehend and interpret the circumstances outside of it, that it just reacts the way it always does. You are for example not really seeing but sensing your surroundings and the other souls gathered here."

"Right..."

Kagome still didn't seem to be too convinced and was about to utter her doubts again, when Inuyasha, surprisingly compromising, said, "OK. Let's just for one second assume that what you say is true. That does in no way explain why we are here and why I was kept in storage. I mean, _if_ every soul returns here and is 'neutralized' again after its body died then why are we still here?"

"I was getting to that. But you need to understand at least a little about our universe to understand why you are needed here. Just listen and and I promise you will understand.

"So the next thing you need to know is that she -" He gestured towards the woman he'd called Sango, "Is what Christians would call God, Muslims would call Allah and perhaps a physicist would call the force that caused the Big Bang, she is the creator of all this.

Now, while she did create the whole universe and every single dimension in it, still, the minute she finished, she lost, or rather voluntarily gave up the ability to interfere in a phisical, which means she can see what is going on but cannot directly control what is happening inside the dimensions. The space in between the dimensions is her mind in a way, her consciousness, and every soul is part of her too. That is how she knows everything, she just is everyone and sees everything.

"So every soul is neutral the moment it comes into a dimension but, as I said, it is formed by the experiences its owner has in the course of his or her life , the choices they make, and thus every soul can turn good or bad, pure or evil.

"In one of these dimensions, yours to be precise, there once was a woman, a priestess, that was as pure as light itself and therefore controlled immense amounts of spiritual powers. She was so very powerful she was able to purify every tainted, evil soul within her reach, dozens at a time.

"Now those who had evil souls, demons mainly, back then, wanted to remain evil and fearfully watched that woman gain more and more power with every day that passed.

One day they decided they would have to join forces to defeat her and desperately sought a possibility to fuse. They found one in the woman's sole weakness. To become as powerful as she was and to preserve her purity she had had to completely detach herself from everything secular and had abandoned those who loved her long ago.

"There was a man who had loved her back then and still did, but the rejection and disappointment had turned his once pure admiration for the priestess into dark, tainted lusting, and perverted obsession.

"His torn and weak soul was the perfect basis for the evil demons' fusion and so they went and tricked him, promising to give him the power to regain the priestess's attention, which they did of course, just not in a way he could make use of. But, that man, desperate for the woman to acknowledge him, agreed and let the demons eat his heart to fuse into one, enormously vile and powerful, demon.

"Once they had gained the necessary strength they attacked the priestess. Yet they still underestimated the priestess. She still was a nearly invincible opponent for them, even with joined forces.

"The battle went on and on. Seven days and seven nights they fought incessantly, but in the end it was her human body that gave the advantage to the joined youkai. The constant fighting had worn her out and she couldn't summon the power to defend herself any more. The demons eagerly started to devour her and tried to suck up her soul but she, using her very last reserves of power, managed to extract the fused youkai's soul, entwine it with her own and push it out of her.

"She and the demon died that very moment, but their souls clung together inseparably and therefore did not, as usual, return to the interdimension but remained inside their dimension and crystallized to a simple glass ball, as large as a human eyeball.

"Within that glass ball the two souls, the pure soul of the priestess and the tainted demon-soul, kept on trying to overpower on another, and thereby turned that glass ball into a powerful item that was able to give strength to an evil soul, because when one of these was near the evil soul inside the glass ball grew stronger and the glass ball would be tainted. But at the same time the item could grant wishes to a pure soul, for when one of those was near the priestesses soul ruled the glass ball and it was purified. Sadly, tainted souls seemed to be much more common back then, they still are and always will be probably, and the ball gained quite a reputation among demons and evil hearted humans because they yearned for its power and among everyone else because they feared its power. Because of the formerly very common Shintoist theory of the soul consisting of four parts the item was called glass ball of four souls, the Shikon no Tama."

"Wait! Did you just say Shikon no Tama? Fuck! I knew all this shit sounded familiar."

Kagome looked at Inuyasha surprised as did Miroku. "You know the Shikon no Tama? I wasn't aware of that. Sango?"

He turned to look at her. She returned his look with one half peeved, half uncaring.

"Yeah, I might have forgotten to tell you that. It's not that important anyway. In fact it's rather an advantage. At least one of them is aware of the Tama's power and won't underestimate its danger."

"Yes, that's true. Still you should have told me and you know why. We'll talk about this later."

"Whatever. Just go on and tell them what all this is about already. You know how eager they are to get out of here, well at least he is,."

"Fine." He turned back to Inuyasha, who was still brooding about the Shikon no Tama, obviously, and Kagome, who was trying to figure him out without him being aware of that.

"Wench's right. Just go on already, monk. Now I really wanna get out of here. I don't want to have anything to do with that damned glass ball anymore."

"Uh... I'm not sure I can promise you that... Anyway, where was I? Yes. Evil creatures empowered by the Shikon no Tama devastated the lands and so all those who were of pure hearts and spiritual powers of course desperately tried to find a way to destroy or constantly neutralize the Shikon no Tama. But every time they gave it to someone to purify, the demons somehow found out and that way successfully hindered the purification for centuries."

Miroku and Kagome found themselves staring at Inuyasha yet again as he commented with a "Keh!" but Miroku continued. "In the end there was a circle of 13 priests and priestesses who found another way, not to destroy it but to split it and ban it from their world. With all their powers joined they managed to divide the Tama into 13 pieces. In that split form the item was less powerful and so they could impose a curse on the Tama, each one of them on one single shard, for its pieces to be spread and separated from each other as far as possible. It seemed then that the Shikon no Tama had vanished, and it had, even more so than the circle had anticipated.

"They had, when separating the pieces as far as possible from each other, managed to make them leave their dimension. The splinters were spread among different dimensions where they were for centuries and still are.

"But while problems ended for this one dimension, for the others they began. The shards, consisting of souls that are foreign to those dimensions, besides still being very powerful and immediately attracting all kinds of mean beings, also disturbed the balance inside the whole universe. The real problem is, though, that because of their concentrated and crystallized form they are no longer connected to HER and she can therefore not remove them from the dimensions.

"The effects of the foreign soul pieces are not remarkable inside the dimensions, but outside of them one, or rather SHE, Sango, being what holds the dimensions together, senses that unbalance. In fact the constant unbalance exhausts her and deprives her of her energy, which in the end might even lead to the end of the universe itself, when SHE can't hold it together anymore.

"So you two realize that it is totally necessary that the shards are collected and the Shikon no Tama is destroyed so the priestess's and the demon's souls can finally return to the intraverse and be reborn."

"Yeah. But what does that have to do with me?" Inuyasha, who seemed to have calmed down again, demanded.

"And me?" Kagome felt obliged to add.

Miroku nodded. "I was getting to that, so listen. When I said before that Sango no longer holds physical power over what is going on inside the dimensions I meant that SHE could not interfere the way people normally imagine gods to do, that they have already determined what is going to happen and turn things their way, or that hey bring plagues and catastrophies upon manking to prova a point or another. SHE can not and doesn't even want to do that.

"Now you see, as I said before, to remove the Shikon no Tama she can't just reach inside the dimension and retrieve it, but there's another way. And that's where you two come in. Remember when I said every soul had its counterpart inside every dimension? Based upon that SHE theoretically can also two of those counterparts, or rather can force one consciousness, one pattern, over the other so that it dominates the self for a certain amount of time. That connection is not very stable and will reconnect after some time if it's not reconnected by HER before.

"And this is what SHE needs you, your souls, for. You'll be connected to your counterparts inside the dimensions where shards of the Shikon no Tama were sent and are to seek them out to restore the glass ball and to free the souls locked within so the balance of the universe is rehabilitated."

"Why us? What's so special about our souls that it had to be us and no-one else?"

"Yeah. You obviously had this planned out for at least twenty years already if you kept me in storage till she died. Why?"

"I'm glad to see you finally are accepting the truth. As to your questions;

there were several premises the souls for this task had to fulfil.

"The first was the most pragmatic one, their counterparts had to live close enough to the location of the shard to make it possible for them to actually find it. As you can imagine that already limited our choice considerably.

"Then, and this concerns only you, Kagome, one of the souls had to be one with spiritual power, primarily because to remove the shards from the dimensions they have to be linked to another soul, a process that requires spiritual power and secondly because to exactly locate the shards these powers are needed as well."

"Are you saying I'm a miko? 'Cause sorry, but I'm not." Kagome laughed. "I mean I lived in a shrine, I know, but my grandfather is a priest and he's tested me a thousand times already. I never responded to any of his tests."

"I am indeed saying that you are a miko, if you like to put it that way. Believe me, your spiritual powers are immense, but to prove that your grandfather would have to have some himself, which he doesn't. That's why you didn't know about your powers."

"So the bitch is a miko. Fine. Where do I come in then? I know I don't have spiritual powers, can't have, being a hanyou."

Kagome was about to snap at him for calling her bitch yet again, but forgot about that when he described himself as a 'hanyou'. 'Hanyou? Half demon? Well that'd probably explain the ears. But there are no things such as demons. They're just myths. _Yeah but until five minutes ago you were also convinced there was so such thing as an afterlife or even reincarnation. And now? _Shut up. I know that.'

Then she realized Miroku had already begun to answer the boy's, 'hanyou's', question and focussed on that again, promising herself not to let the matter just slide and find out about the boy later. He said he'd tell her, after all.

"Your participation is inevitable for another two reasons. The first is, as I said, the shards attract evil creatures, strengthening them and making them even more of a danger for a young human girl, even for one with spiritual powers. So she needs a protector, you."

"Who says I want to protect that bitch? I really could care less, neither her welfare nor that of the universe is of my concern, really, why should I even bother? It's not like you can make me." Inuyasha challenged.

Kagome stuck her tongue out at him and crossed her eyes. "Who says I'd want to be protected by a jerky freak like you anyway? But besides that, he's right. Why would both of us want to do that for you? I mean it does sound like one hell of a lot of hard work and danger. I'm not so sure I'm willing to put that much effort into something for a reward as vague and unbelievable as 'saving the universe'. And if I'm not that willing then just imagine him, considering that I obviously am the far, far more socialized one of us."

"Oh that stung. Are you saying I'm not socialized? My, my I'm hurt. My whole life, all I craved was for everyone to recognize how much I fucking CARE about anything besides myself. And there you are crushing all my self-esteem. Really." Inuyasha commented sarcastically.

Kagome snickered. "Well, seeing how you're getting all worked up about this, I'd say that, in spite of the oh, so subtle hint of sarcasm in your accusation, I really must have hurt you. Poor boy."

"Bitch."

"Oh, that's clever. Are you always that creative?"

"Bitch."

"If you think you can break me by just being insistent, I'm sorry to disappoint you; I won't fall for that."

He grinned knowingly. "Bitch."

"Gods, all you are doing is getting on my nerves. Stop already!"

"B-"

"Shut up, asshole, or I'll make you!"

"Bitch! I'd like to see you try!"

'I don't even know why I let him get to me! Aargh! He's just so... just looking at him makes me want to beat that conceited expression off his face... _or tweak those ears–_ shut up dammit!'

'Really why am I provoking her all the time? I can't seem to stop those words from leaving my mouth. She's just so... just looking at her makes me wanna make her snap, break her control. _Well she does look... good when she's angry. _Shut up. That has nothing to do with it.'

Miroku, having watched the dispute with growing amusement, chose to interrupt the two, who had gone from snapping at each other to just staring and growling (well on Inuyasha's side at least). "I might remind you, that both of you wanted to know whether there is some sort of reward to be expected in case you succeed in collecting all the shards, some reward besides being the ones who saved the whole universe. Well the answer is 'yes'. SHE expected you to claim something like that and therefore has the following to offer: You accept the task and collect the shards and as a reward you shall get your lives back."

"Keh! No way! I know that's impossible! You yourself said that SHE can not interfere. And sending a soul back into a corpse should not be possible."

"He's right, surprisingly. How do you do that?"

"There is a way. It's not common, and it brings with it even more unnatural shifting and bending the balance of the universe but it is possible. You see, time for her is not relevant the way it is for us. What she can do is take your soul now, with the added experience and knowledge about the tragic mismeasurement in your case, Inuyasha, and that lack of caution in your case, Kagome, that led to your deaths, and put that, let's call it wiser, soul into your body some time before you died. The wiser soul will, if backed up with enough power, be able to replace the other soul, or rather fuse with it and you should be able to avoid your deaths."

"Wouldn't that mean that what happens now and is to happen, will never have happened, too? Then we would never have collected the jewel and never have gotten that knowledge and would not..." Kagome scrunched her nose confusedly. "I'm confused."

Miroku smiled. "Yes, the wonders and paradoxes of time travel, marvellous aren't they? But let me assure you that no, it will not be like that. Time is a phenomenon that is limited to the dimensions. SHE, the intraverse, is independent of it."

"I can't say I'm less confused now. Anyway - "

"Anyway." Inuyasha interrupted the, in his eyes, pointless discussion, returning to the actual point. "Assuming we accept your offer, what exactly would we expect inside those dimensions? Those counterparts, do they have the same names as we do, for example? If not, how do we recognize each other? And in what ways do those dimensions differ from the one we come from?"

"Well, your counterparts most likely aren't called by the same name as you are, no. We will tell you what you are going to look like before you enter the dimensions, so you'll be able to recognize each other. If you're not sure, asking is the way. As for the differences... well, what can be said is that all the worlds you are going to travel do have an atmosphere containing oxygen... about the rest, I am not sure whether you would call the differences grave or not. Some dimensions may appear technically less developed than yours, some more, all in all I'd say there are no differences so confusing that you won't be able to adapt after a small amount of time."

"I'll do it."

Miroku and Inuyasha looked at Kagome surprised.

"What?"

"I'll do it. It sounds like a possibly solvable task to me. But that's not the point. I want my life back. Well, that and I'm just curious. I'd really love to see those other dimensions. Yeah, I'll do it."

"That's... great. I'm surprised you decided so fast, but I'm not going to complain. Well that leaves you, Inuyasha. Are you willing to do it?"

"...uhhhmm"

"Hah! What is it? Are you afraid? Fits. You struck me as the cowardly one from the start."

"Bitch I'm not afraid. I'm just not so sure I really want my life back."

"Well, if that is the problem SHE can always offer you another kind of reward. Name it, if it is possible, you are going to get it."

Inuyasha glared at the goddess in question calculatingly then nodded slowly.

"Alright. Then I'm in...and as a reward I request..."

Everyone looked at him expectantly as he tried to come up with something he wanted as a reward. Waited and waited... waited... waited some more... until Miroku finally offered,

"You can think of a reward later if you have no idea what to ask for yet, you aren't going to receive it until the task is finished anyway."

"Keh!"

"I'll translate that as a 'Yes', then."

Everyone was surprised to suddenly hear Sango speak up again, even Miroku, who turned to look at her. "If both of you accept, we can get started right away. This whole unbalance thing is giving me one hell of the equivalent of a headache. The sooner it is over the better. Tell them about the first dimension, Miroku."

"As you wish." He turned to Kagome and Inuyasha again. "So, to get you well acquainted with the whole concept of dimension travel, as the first dimension we chose the one that is most similar to yours..."

A.N.: Finally edited. Dear god, why did people even bother continuing to read this?Even I had no idea what some of the things I wrote meant anymore! Anyway, thanks Alvida, and sorry it took me so long.


	4. First time always hurts, they say

Inuyasha – A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale

Chapter 1

First time hurts, they say ...

Disclaimer: I don't own the series Inuyasha.

The feeling of his soul being forced into the self of another was something, Inuyasha decided, he would not even wish for his pain in the ass half-brother to have to experience. It was not painful, it just felt absolutely _wrong_, like kicking baby bunnies or maybe like the man in that Kafka novel must have felt when he woke to find himself changed into a giant insect.

The feeling of wrongness was so strong that the moment his consciousness fully merged with the new body he struggled to suppress the urge to throw up so much he had to close his eyes and tried to take deep even breaths.

Unfortunately it wasn't until right then he realized that the other self, its body rather, had been running pretty fast when Inuyasha took it over. He staggered but managed to keep his balance, stopped and opened his eyes. He barely had the time to make out that the ground beneath him consisted of red, dusty stones when someone rammed into him from behind and he fell, this time losing his balance. The person that ran into him fell on top of him and his chin hit the ground really hard. He groaned and closed his eyes again.

"Fuck! Are you crazy?" The person atop of him stood quickly and started yelling. "Why the hell did you stop? You gave up your lead, damn it! You were a good two seconds ahead of me! What's going on, man?"

Inuyasha then decided it was about time he started taking in his surroundings. He lifted his head off the ground and glanced around. He'd fallen onto the middle of a sprinting lane, he figured, and around him stood a group of boys, wearing sports clothes and staring at him. To his right he saw a large area of lawn with groups of people practicing all kinds of sports. To his left he saw some small spectator stands and behind these, a few hundred meters away, a large building, maybe two or three.

Remembering he had been asked a question sometime in the not so distant past he turned to the boy in front of him who looked at him expectantly, struggling to make up a good excuse for his, or rather the body's real owner's, clumsy behavior. In the end he just went with the truth. "Umm ... I suddenly felt kinda sick... I still do ... I think I should just go now ... you know ... drink a glass of water ..." He got up.

"Wait! You can't just leave like that. Training's just begun. At least tell the trainer!"

Rubbing his still aching chin Inuyasha decided that he didn't like that annoying boy, would just ignore him, leave and go looking for that girl so they could go looking for that damned shard, and break that ... son-of-a-bitch-bozou, Miroku's legs for having him go into that dimension first. Had they sent in the girl first, the body's legal owner would most certainly not have been in the middle of a fucking sprint.

He started jogging in the direction of the larger building, assuming it was the school both he and the girl were supposed to be attending, but that unnerving boy spoke again, pointing to a smaller building left of the stands "The changing rooms are over there, and the showers too, you do realize that, don't you? I mean if you're gonna leave just like that you should at least take your clothes with you."

If there was one thing he absolutely hated it was people who constantly knew everything better and thought it was their god given duty to enlighten the whole world with helpful pieces of advice. "Shut up, faggot! No one asked you. Just leave me the fuck alone," was his rather aggressive reply. But, Inuyasha turned and ran towards the changing rooms nonetheless. The annoy-boy was right, after all.

OOO

OO

O

OO

OOO

It took him a whole lot more time to finally leave the PE area and go looking for Kagome. Weird, normally his brain more or less refused to bother with names, but hers he had no trouble recalling ... maybe because he had been the one to remind her that Kagome was her name 'n all. Yeah ... more time than he would have preferred, but once having arrived inside the boy's changing room he realized he had no idea which of the clothes were his.

Figuring trying on each of them was out of question he then simply tried to identify them by scent which was difficult enough as his dimension counterpart lacked all his superior senses. Besides that, burying his nose into nine sets of worn teenage boys' clothes had in no way helped him with his nausea as some of the boys REALLY seemed to be a little unclear about how the principle of hygiene generally was defined and applied.

In the end he managed to find a pair that smelled right.

Standing under the large tree in front of the main building Miroku had suggested as a meeting point for them, as trying to find each other in a school of more than 900 students would have been close to impossible, he still could not believe his counterpart voluntarily wore this ridiculous uniform. He knew of some schools back in his dimension that had girls wear sailor suit like uniforms but the boys normally wore plain, dark suits of some kind. In this dimension though, or at least at this school the uniform for boys was a suit that looked suspiciously similar to the one he remembered the wench wearing, well ... sort of wearing, maybe more like filling out ... rather nicely ... yeah ...

He noted with annoyance that the girl (annoying and not worth a second thought girl as he had decided when she kept on countering every single rude remark he shot at her with a reply he couldn't help but call... witty. Eew!) had sneakily found her way back into his head again and snorted and shook his head to refocus on the more current subject of his in some way always current discontent: the uniform.

He wasn't quite sure what disgusted him most: the fact that it consisted of white trousers and a mostly white shirt, the most repelling color of all besides, perhaps, beige; the fact that the trousers weren't just trousers but SHORTS ( No man who possessed even the tiniest bit of self esteem would voluntarily wear shorts outside the few hottest days of the year ... or at least that's what Inuyasha thought.); or the fact the shirt had a broad, blue stripe at its hem as well as at its collar, a collar that was simply too large and square shaped and just... too Popeye-ish for his liking.

It was her arrival, at last, that managed to snap him out of his brooding. While she looked at him insecurely and timidly asked, "Inuyasha?" to make sure she wasn't about to go confuse some random schoolboy A LOT, he never had any doubts the girl in front of him really was her counterpart. Miroku's description of what Sango had told him to expect had been accurate.

Before him stood a girl that was tall to say the least. She stood a good half head taller than his counterpart's body did and he had already been the tallest boy of the sprinting team he left behind. And just in case that was not enough to identify her, he now saw that Miroku had indeed not been kidding when he'd said that she was going to have hardly more than an inch long, purple dyed hair, a fact that seemed to be still rather hard to grasp for Kagome, too, as she kept on absently tracing her hand over her scalp. Add to all this the bulkily muscular legs and arms her sailor suit uniform barely managed to cover (Yes, the girls apparently wore them too, Inuyasha was glad to realize. At least he would not be the only one suffering.) and you had one stereotype of a radical feminist, men despising, macho lesbian, complete with the cliché nose ring. For a few seconds Inuyasha tried not to laugh, then remembered he had absolutely no reason not to and burst out.

That was probably enough of an answer for the girl, as he had reacted exactly the same way when Miroku first told them what her counterpart looked like. "Hah hah very funny. I should be laughing really. At least I am looking cool and dangerous. You, POPEYE, are just looking ridiculous!"

That managed to silence him quite well and he stopped laughing to growl at her (Which, as he realized his counterpart really was no half dog demon but obviously completely human, came out not even half as intimidating as normal.). "Well it's not like I chose to wear this weird momma's darling boy outfit-"

"And neither did I choose to cut off my hair and do bodybuilding. That was our dimensions-pals' doing so let's just get this over with and go looking for that shard somewhere."

With a last growl, he accepted her peace offering, a little surprised that she let it slide just like that when she'd reacted that harshly before.

"Yeah. Sense anything yet?" he went straight back to business.

"Sense?" Kagome answered him quizzically.

"The shard. Miroku said you were able to sense them, remember?" Inuyasha reminded her with a "Duh!" tone to his voice.

"Ah! Well, actually, I have no idea what this "sensing" is supposed to feel like but right now I don't feel anything strange. What do you think we should do?"

"Dunno ..." he shrugged his shoulders.

They both pondered on that question until Inuyasha suggested, "We could just walk around the school area, inside and outside, and see if we come across anything strange or if you sense anything out of the ordinary."

Kagome nodded slowly. "I guess that makes sense ... but what about our counterparts' lessons? I think there's lunch break right now but later they are going to miss some lessons."

Yeah right. That social thing again. "Keh! So what? It's not like we even know what classes they have so why bother? And whatever we might learn, they aren't gonna remember it anyway."

"But perhaps they'll be in trouble later when they have their bodies back!" Kagome said, sounding honestly concerned.

Inuyasha could care less. "And that's our problem, because ... ? Come on, if that bothers you so much then it should be in your interest to find that damn shard today so we can leave as soon as possible. You said there's lunch break right now? Then most of the students will be in the cafeteria. Let's go there first."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Kagome reluctantly agreed. "I mean I don't even know where my locker is so I guess we should just hurry and leave as soon as possible."

"Yeah," Inuyasha started running towards the building Kagome had emerged from a few minutes ago. "Let's go!""That's incredible!" Kagome beamed happily when they reached the cafeteria doors in no time.

"What's incredible?" Inuyasha glared at her suspiciously.

"We ran the whole way from that tree 'till here and I'm not even out of breath! That is incredible. I mean, I've always hated sports. I would have been a sweaty, panting mess by now if I still had my own body!"

"Right … " Inuyasha struggled, once again, to shrug off the unwanted pictures of Kagome's "own body", this time a "sweaty and panting" version, and pushed open the doors to the cafeteria.

He had been right; most of the students were in the cafeteria that very moment. It would not have surprised him if someone had told him that all of the students were present. He barely managed to suppress a growl. He hated large masses of humans. They were just impossible to predict. You never knew what would happen next because you couldn't keep track of everyone's actions at the same time and he hated having so little control over the situation. Kagome, though didn't seem to mind. On the contrary, she looked totally at ease and glanced around the room curiously. Well, she was used to this after all. She turned around to talk to him.

"Let's go sit down somewhere. I think we are going to evoke some unwanted attention if we keep standing in the doorway." And indeed a few heads had already turned towards them, most watching them with expressions of total surprise and utter disbelief. So they entered the room and slowly began walking towards an empty table.

Suddenly a boy, one of those who had been watching them, stood and came over to them. Recognizing him as he approached Inuyasha groaned and covered his eyes with his hand. "The annoy-boy. What have I done to deserve this?"

"What?" Kagome, who had examined the room, her eyes closed and a concentrated expression on her face looked at him confusedly as he murmured, "Some boy who can't seem to leave me alone. Uh, here we go --"

"There you are! Man I've been looking everywhere for you but at the nurse's station they said you never appeared. Where've you been?" The boy, having arrived and now standing in front of Inuyasha, lowered his voice, "And what are you doing with HER? She's gonna castrate you the moment you turn your back to her."

"WHAT did you just say?"

Inuyasha and the boy turned to Kagome who now looked rather irritated, hands on her hips and glaring at the annoy-boy. Inuyasha grinned. He was glad that he, for once, was not the object of her wrath, and he couldn't feel even the slightest bit sorry for the annoying boy. But, to his surprise, when the boy stammered something like, "Ummm nothing really ... you know I ... that is ... heh, heh." instead of yelling at the boy like she'd done to him she just folded her arms and continued to stare at him.

The boy squirmed under her glare. "Sorry, really ... 'Twas a stupid joke after all, it's not like anyone really thinks you'd..."

She grinned, not very friendly, not at all, and tensed the muscles of her upper arm. "I wouldn't be too sure about that ..."

'Jeez she's scary ... Yeah, the pleasures of having an intimidating build - ' Inuyasha sighed wistfully and cast his own skinny body a glance. His real body was not as ... impressive as that of Kagome's counterpart but still way better than this assembly of frail bones and skin was. Especially after people had a little glimpse at what he could do with it. Then he continued to watch amusedly as Kagome went from folding her arms to cracking her knuckles, the grin never leaving her face ' - and the fun you can have with it.'

"Ehehehee ... " The boy hurried to turn away, grasping Inuyasha's arm in the process. "Come on Keichii. Let's get going." He tried to pull Inuyasha along but he refused to move and tore his arm free.

"I don't think so. We have some matters that are definitely none of your concern to discuss here. Just leave me the fuck alone, I told you that before."

"But ..."

"Go! Damn it!" The boy hurried away, a hurt and confused expression on his face. "Finally!" Inuyasha turned to find Kagome glaring at him, which was no pleasant sight., She was rather scary. It seemed as if the intimidating build worked on him, too. "What?" he snapped defensively.

She sat down at the empty end of the table. "I can't believe you're that stupid. I mean it was obvious that boy was a friend of your counterpart's. Why'd you chase him away like that?"

Inuyasha took a seat opposite her. "I knew that. I met him before. He just got on my nerves. And I hate it when people touch me without my permission. He did that too. " He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms in front of his chest defensively. "Besides, this way he only thinks his buddy's having a bad day or something, so he's gonna stay away. You never know what he would have overheard had he kept on bothering me."

"A bad day?" Kagome snorted. "You treated him like dirt. You probably destroyed their friendship and your counterpart won't even know what he did wrong."

"That's none of our business. They'll get over it. Fuck,can't we just drop that and get to the point? Do you sense anything?"

Kagome didn't look like she really wanted to let it slide, just like that, this time but still, she nodded. "Shortly before your friend there arrived, I felt something strange, like something was tickling my ... I don't know … mind? And I think I saw something at the other side of the room, a soft pink light, but that's gone now and the feeling gets weaker and weaker. I'm not sure what all of this means but ..."

"But what?" Inuyasha leaned towards her.

"Well, Miroku said that the shards are most probably in the possession of some demon or an evil human so I think ..."

"You think? Get to the point already, wench!"

"Well, I think that one of the students here has got the shard, and he or she left the cafeteria; that's why the feeling keeps getting weaker."

"Well of course, who did you think had the shard? The goddamn house palm over there? Anyway, you think you can track the guy with the shard by that 'tickling'?"

"I can try."

"Then let's get going. If we hurry up enough we might be back in time for our counterparts to be in time for class, and you wouldn't have to worry about destroying their school careers."

"Oh, I'm so sorry I care about people other than myself."

"We've had that before. I don't, so what? Let's go already!"

In the end they did not manage to track the owner of the shard in time. In fact Kagome, being new to the whole spiritual power thing and all, lost the track so often it took them until shortly before end of classes to arrive in front of a door which Kagome proudly announced as "The right one, this time."

"You sure?"

"Very."

"Alright, then. Let's go in."

Kagome reached out to hold him back but stopped, perhaps remembering him saying he hated people to touch him, and instead just jumped in front of him. "Wait! That's a classroom. Listen, they're having class right now, we can't just go in there and wreak havoc while taking that shard."

'Yeah. The being nice and social thing again.' "So what do you suggest we do instead?"

"Well, if school's out here about the same time it is in our dimension,it won't be too long until whoever has the shard will come out of that room.

"Whatever." Inuyasha leaned against the wall besides the door and closed his eyes. The shard hunting had worn him out a little, his dimension-pal's body was one of a sprinter, not of a marathon runner and most certainly not of a hanyou, so naturally it sucked. He was lost in pleasant thoughts about familiar clawed hands doing splattery things to the one who owned that shard and had chosen classes all over the three school buildings, on purpose, Inuyasha suspected irrationally, just to spite him, when Kagome cleared her throat.

"Sooo..."

He opened his eyes half way to look at her. "Sooo?"

"How'd you ... you know … die?"

"What?"

"How did you die? You know how I died so it's only fair if I get to know your story." She smiled slightly and peered at him expectantly.

He couldn't help but find that a little morbid, considering the subject. "You don't need to know that. It's nothing interesting like falling down a well. I just died, OK?"

Her face fell again. "Yeah, right. You can't be older than eighteen. People your age don't just die like that. So you don't want to tell me. That's OK. But you know I think we should at least try to get along a little. We're gonna be stuck together for more than a little while. That can't be too much to ask now, can it?"

"Keh!" He didn't really know what to answer. She was probably right, and it wasn't really that he hated her or anything. He did realize that in spite of her rather fierce reaction back in the soul depot she was a very friendly and concerned girl. She'd said it herself: she cared about people. It wouldn't be hard to like her. But if you spent your whole life building up a wall around yourself, thickening it after every hurtful experience, after every disappointment it _was_ too much to ask for him to just try and get along with somebody because you just never knew were that led and he'd promised himself he'd never, under any circumstances, let someone in again.

Fortunately, the bell rang, interrupting the awkward silence he'd created when he kept on avoiding her eyes so he wouldn't feel obliged to explain himself at the hurt he was sure he'd find there. Grasping that very convenient straw, he tugged at Kagome's sleeve. "Come on! We better go hide behind that corner, the teacher doesn't need to see us standing here."

They had just rounded the corner when the door was thrown open and a flood of students poured into the corridor, chattering loudly and walking towards the stairs opposite the corner Kagome and Inuyasha hid behind. Already when the first few students had passed Kagome tapped Inuyasha's shoulder pointed into the bulk and whispered, "There's that pink light again! And the feeling's stronger than ever before; I was right this time. What do we do now?"

"Follow the owner on his way home and corner him as soon as he's alone, I'd say."

They mingled with the crowd of students, Kagome following the shard and Inuyasha following Kagome down the stairs and to the corridor where the lockers were.

"Can you distinguish who's got the shard?" He glanced around her surveying the corridor. He didn't see anything suspicious happening.

"Not exactly. See that large crowd of girls over there? I think it's one of them." She pointed to wards a bunch of loudly chattering girls, who, as Inuyasha observed, seemed to be more or less crowded around one girl.

"Yup, see them." He started towards the girls but stopped again when he realized Kagome wasn't following. "What?"

"I thought we were going to follow the shard's owner out of school and confront him alone?"

"Sure we are. But it would be nice if we knew who it is that has the shard and perhaps find out what power it gives to him, whether he's physically strong and such, so we can face him prepared."

"Oh."

From the realization dawning on her face Inuyasha could see she had not even wasted a single thought on the possibility that whoever had the shard might not just hand it over if they asked him -- or her -- nicely, but that they'd have to fight him over it. Keh! That girl sure was naive. He snorted. "You honestly thought we were just going to walk up to that person and ask them for the shard? What do you think they had me accompany you for? My negotiation skills? I'm a goddamn hanyou; fighting is the only thing I've ever done in my life."

"But the owner obviously is a schoolgirl. What harm could she possibly do us?"

Inuyasha refrained from reminding her that the body she currently inhabited was that of a schoolgirl, too, and that he could imagine a whole lot of harm she could inflict upon anyone with it. Instead, he just went back, grabbed her sleeve and pulled her along, stomping towards the girls. "It's still better to be prepared. Now get going. They are already leaving."

The group of girls had now started towards the exit of the school and because they were walking now they didn't stand as close to the, yes indeed, girl, they all seemed so obsessed with, anymore so Kagome and Inuyasha could cast a first glance on their target.

The closer they got, Inuyasha hurrying through the corridor still pulling Kagome along though she followed him willingly now, the more it became clear to him that there was absolutely nothing special about that girl, at least concerning her looks. She was averagely tall had mid-length, light brown hair and, when they caught up with them he saw that her face was not remarkably pretty either. Nowhere as pretty as ...other faces he'd seen recently. Gah! That stupid girl couldn't seem to keep out of his head and it didn't help that in spite of the very, very masculine appearance of her dimension counterpart, they still seemed to share one trait: their scent. Somehow that ... golem whose sleeve his hand still clenched managed to have the very same effect on him, both calming and irritating, soothing and hurting.

Lost in these thoughts he had sped up even more, so that now they were already walking ahead of the shard owner, which caused Kagome, who stumbled behind him struggling with that stupid speed right between walking and running, to grasp his hand that still held her sleeve, and tug on it to stop him.

"Inuyasha? What are you doing? I can't keep track of her if she's behind us, we should stay behind her!"

That finally snapped him out of his confusing line of associations which to his irritation all centered around the even more confusing girl behind him, and he stopped to turn to her and find a good excuse for his behavior.

Before he could utter that excuse though, he was tackled by someone and pushed into the lockers to his left, his arm was grabbed and twisted behind his back and a knee was pushed between his legs. The air rushed out of his lungs and as he still struggled to comprehend what exactly was going on and how this attack had managed to escape his normally perfect awareness, the attacker snarled into his ear, "Just what do you think you are doing with my girlfriend, you goddamn son of a bitch manwhore? You honestly think that any attempts to even awake her attention will not eventually end up in a futile attempt to produce offspring without the proper equipment? EH?"

What Inuyasha realized through the paralysis of total confusion were two things: Firstly, his attacker was not as strong as he had thought him to be, he had just taken him by surprise; and secondly, he could feel that besides the knee between his legs there was also a pair of breasts against his back, so the attacker was a girl, too.

Not wanting to risk any injuries as he did not know how flexible this new body was compared to his hanyou one, he chose a course of action that consisted less of twisting and more of brute strength to break free. He pressed his thighs together, trapping the girl's knee and roughly pushed her backwards with his free arm twisting the trapped one so that she had to let go of it, which caused her to lose her balance with her leg trapped, then turned his upper body -- urgh! so that was already the limit of flexibitity -- hands darting out quickly and grabbing the girl around her neck in mid fall. Pulling her up, he let go of her legs and turned around completely, for the first time looking at her. She wore the same uniform Kagome did, naturally, and the same enormous combat boots, but she was a whole lot smaller and more delicately built than her assumed girlfriend whose body was occupied by Kagome -- speaking of which, what was she doing and why hadn't she helped him? He looked to his left and found her standing there with a rather not-so-pleased expression on her face. But, she wasn't looking at the girl who had attacked him, it was him!

Forgotten was the kicking female clawing at his hand and he snapped at the other one, "What? Why are you looking at me like I did something wrong now, wench?" There it was again. Why would her opinion on what he did mean anything to him? But, her reproachful glare made him feel uneasy. How did she do that? "She was attacking me goddamn it! And I haven't done anything to provoke that, so why am I not allowed to defend myself?"

"You are stranglingher, that's why I'm looking at you that way! Just let go of her neck and we might even find out why she did this before she dies by air deprivation."

Helooked at the girl in his hand. She had stopped kicking and was turning a little blue. "Oh." He loosened his grip on her neck and grabbed her arm instead. She sucked in air noisily then turned to face Kagome instead of Inuyasha.

"Why are you talking to that scum, you bitch? I thought you were the one who always told me the smell of men made you sick! Changed your mind? Suddenly in need of some DICK!" The girl was enraged, obviously, and kept on getting louder and louder and at the same time more and more creative finding expressions to vent her jealousy.

Great. So Kagome's counterpart did not only look like one stereotype of a radical feminist, men despising, macho lesbian but she obviously was one, complete with an overly jealous girlfriend. How very convenient.

Kagome seemed to be at a loss for words at that curtain fire of reproaches and insults and looked at him pleadingly. Hah! He wasn't going to make himself the object of anger for that banshee. Besides she knew he would not care whether the beast was hurt or not and Kagome knew that and didn't like it. So, he kept silent.

Then she obviously had an idea because she suddenly smiled and out a hand on the screeching girl's shoulder to snap her out of her ranting. "I'm sorry but I think you mistook me for someone else. I don't even normally attend this school, I'm his cousin --" she nodded towards Inuyasha "-- and I'll only be staying here for a few days."

The girl did at least stop screaming; now staring at Kagome in disbelief while Inuyasha, turned to press his head against the locker behind him, bit on his hand to suppress his laughter. That was the worst excuse he'd heard in his life and his life had been long, indeed, still this was so uncreative and stupid, no one was going to buy that! No one!

And the girlfriend didn't. "Do you think I'm totally brain-dead? I still am able to recognize my own fucking girlfriend, thank you very much! What's this mean? Is that a totally absurd way of telling me it's over? Did that scum brainwash you with his testosterone infested ways so you'd break up with me?"

She turned to Inuyasha again who was now vibrating with suppressed laughter. "And you! You think this is funny? Was it your idea? Are you blackmailing her? What's going on damn it?" Her hand darted out to either grab his collar or hit him, but Kagome prevented that when she grabbed Inuyasha's hand that still held the girl's arm and pulled him away and towards the exit quickly, calling back to the girl left behind,

"Honestly I've never seen you before. Go looking for your girlfriend and she'll prove this right!"

A.N.: Urgh, did I really write that way just a few months ago? Geee... well, it's edited now, those of you who read this version only, be glad, the one before was crappier.


	5. Wicked wenches, weaknesses and wine

**Inuyasha – A parallel dimensional fairytale **

Chapter 3

Wicked wenches, wounds, weaknesses and wine.

Disclaimer: _IF_ I owned Inuyasha, seriously, do you think I'd still have the time to write this shit? Or would even bother?

AN.: My first action scene ever... and something that a twisted mind (like mine) might consider WAFF... Oh and anyone who might feel offended by descriptions of alcohol abuse, back off! There might be some...

Kagome ran a while, her speed fueled by the fear of the girl chasing them, and Inuyasha, who was still trembling with slight giggles, let himself be pulled along.

She stopped under the tree where they had met a few hours before, leaning against it. Finding that even after that sprint she was only a little bit out of breath - Aww that girl's body sure rocked, though she wouldn't want to have to go working out every day to maintain it - she realized that she was still holding Inuyasha's hand and peevishly loosened her grip so his would slip out of hers. But to her surprise it stayed where it was, because, as she now saw, Inuyasha was holding her hand, too, rather firmly. She looked up from where they connected to search for a reason in his eyes, but he was not looking at her, he was glancing around frantically.

"Errr.."

She cleared her throat. His eyes locked with hers. She lowered hers to their hands and his followed. When he saw what she was so hesitatingly hinting at he blushed madly - to Kagome's surprise, he hadn't struck her as someone who'd blush that easily - and demonstrably ripped his hand out of hers, mumbling something incoherent, then stepped back and folded his arms.

" - confusing wenches, damn it anyway, that's not the point. We lost her!

"What?"

"The god damn girl who fucking has the shard, who else! While you were busy feeding that bitch the most unbelievable excuse I've heard in my life, that wench got away with the shard."

"Aww darn! What do we do now? I can't sense the shard anymore, you're right, we lost her."

Great! Now they were going to have to spent another school-day looking for the shard, because there was no way they'd find a girl they didn't even know the name of in a city as large as this one appeared to be, judging by the faint, constantly humming noise of metropolia that imbued the silence of the now empty school yard.

And Inuyasha didn't look overly pleased either, no surprise there, still, that was a shame, when for a moment it had seemed that he had somehow let his guard down, holding on to her hand, for a reason she yet had to figure out.

She'd meant what she said earlier, she wanted to get along with him, but that seemed impossible with a person who was as closed up and defensive they'd not allow anyone to even touch them. He didn't particularly seem to mind touching her, though, her hand at least, so maybe that meant that he was loosening up a little around her..? Kagome's wandering mind was caught and brought back to reality by the boy in question, who, after some brooding and moping finally seemed to be willing to effectively focus on the problem at hand and unfolded his arms to stuff them into his pockets.

"And what do you suggest we do now? Pretty much seems like we'll have to wait 'till tomorrow to get the shard. Not that I care, really, but I recall you fearing for our body-landlords scholar career."

Kagome wretched her mind for any way of finding the girl with the shard today.

"Maybe if we just walk around in the city a little, we'll find that girl? I mean, I can sense that shard from quite a distance. And perhaps she's still around here somewhere or doesn't live that far from this school..." , she offered at last.

Inuyasha studied her silently for a while, then agreed.

"Yeah that might work, it's only about three right now, so we have plenty of time... It's not like we have anything else to do anyway."

„Sooooo..."

After they had walked around aimlessly for what Kagome felt must have been an eternity without even the slightest tingle at the back of her mind indicating that the shard was somewhere near she decided it was about time that she interrupted the thick silence they trotted in, side by side, in favour of any kind of conversation.

Inuyasha kept on staring ahead but countered with a careful:

„Sooooo...?"

„So, how's it you knew about the Shikon no Tama? From what Miroku told us it must have been banned from our dimension centuries ago, so what could you possibly have had to do with it?"

This time Inuyasha did turn to face her, but only to shoot her an irritated glare.

„That is just as much none of your business as my death is! Why would I tell you?"

„Well -."

Kagome reminded him calmly in an attempt to hide her growing irritation at his stubborn refusal to even the score and tell her something about him when he already knew all sorts of things about her from that letter.. or that was what she chose to believe her motives were.

"- As we're going to face a shard of that Tama in the near future I'd say we should both know as much as possible about it so that we're prepared. And if you know something I don't then you'd better tell me, right?"

Hah! He could not deny that, especially not when he'd been the one who pointed out the probability of the attempt to gain the shard turning into a fight over it.

But he still hesitated and while he just kept silent Kagome felt her irritation slowly fading.

She wasn't even sure why, except maybe out of a general nosiness, she was so eager to learn more about that boy.

He seemed to have taken her silence as a sign that she had finally given up, because he started scanning the area again... yeah what about that, it wasn't like danger actually did lurk behind every corner, they had passed dozens of them and nothing had happened, but Inuyasha sure acted like it was. He seemed to be on the edge constantly, paranoid almost.

_'I'm a godamn hanyou, fighting is the only thing I've ever done in my life.' _

That sentence returned to her now, when he'd said it, she hadn't spared it a second thought, but now she realized that it offered a very reasonable explanation for his behaviour.

'... the only thing he's ever done... '

What kind of a life made you fight constantly? Was it just his nature to do so? He had quite a temper, maybe he just kept on provoking these kinds of situations? But as as she watched his rigid back, and his head twitching at every foreign noise, she couldn't quite believe that.

'Maybe he just had to... '

Maybe he'd just been, kind of, cast out his whole life, or followed, maybe he really had had to fight in order to defend himself.

Kagome sighed. Why was this bothering her so much? Why did _he _bother her so much?

Maybe, she managed to admit silently, she just wanted to get to know him. He was just... fascinating her in a way, She didn't really buy the whole apathetic asshole scheme, she couldn't help but wonder what was behind all this... she probably really wanted to get to know him. Whatever her motivation might have been.

'_Well he's kinda cute, for instance. Remember the ears? _Will you just shut up? '

Sometimes Kagome wondered whether it was actually normal to have voice's in one's head that were among other things taking delight in mocking her just by being brutally honest. It was hard enough to be honest to all the rest of the world already, and Kagome really liked to think of herself as a honest person, but she kind of wished she had at least herself to lie to sometimes. Whee...

Back to the point, though: So she did want to get to know him, _whatever her motivation might have been_... that didn't give her the right to keep on prying into his affairs, or however it might have seemed to him, but then again that knowledge didn't fell like it would actually keep her from doing it... and she was right, before she was able to stop herself that stupid proposal left her mouth.

„ How 'bout that, then? If you tell me I owe you a favour?"

'_Really, girl, just how weird does that sound?_'

„ A favour?"

The expression on his face that he had turned in her direction again was unreadable, but Kagome was convinced she'd seen a spark of interest flickering through his eyes.

„Yeah a favour. Like, I don't know..."

When she saw the beginning of a blush forming on his other wisely neutral face she felt her face heat simultaneously. She stopped to jump away from him.

„No not that kind of favour you hentai! What kind of a girl do you take me for!"

His hands shot up defensively.

„No! That's not what I-"

he started to defend himself when Kagome suddenly lifted a finger to his mouth to hush him and with a distant look in her eyes said:

„It's back again, I can feel it, faint but there.!"

Probably thankful for that distraction Inuyasha dropped his hands.

„Yeah? You sure? Where's it?"

„It's -"

Kagome closed her eyes to concentrate on the strange, tingling feeling that tickled the back of her ... mind, she couldn't think of way to describe her ability to sense the shards any better.

„It's... coming towards us!"

„What? Are you sure?"

She opened her eyes again to find Inuyasha frenetically scanning the area, again. They had been about to round a corner, stepping out of a narrow, empty street aligned by tall buildings onto a slightly broader but just as vacant one. The sun had begun to set and painted the brick walls ahead of them a soft Indian yellow and reflected from the windows of a few parked cars and the houses, dazzling her as she exited the smaller street to point out where she felt the shard approaching from.

„I think the girl with the shard is coming down that street, towards us."

„Well then, let's go intercept her."

Inuyasha immediately stomped ahead.

Kagome followed shortly after him, but despite her hasty departure her thoughts trailed behind a few minutes and she silently wondered whether he really had thought of that kind of a favour... because, even though she really had been rather appalled by the idea at first, she figured that had been more out of a reflex of modesty she'd been brought up to possess than any heart felt disgust. Somehow the thought that someone thought of her that way was not wholly unpleasant, especially if that someone happened to be able to evoke similar thoughts in her... She mentally slapped the back of her head.

'Quit that, stupid! Concentrate on the shard!'

But still, while she sped up to catch up with Inuyasha she found herself staring at the top of his head and sighing when she once again was reminded of the absence of any twitching fuzziness.

'_Those ears sure were cute_... Shut up! The shard, concentrate on the -'

Realizing the tingling feeling had intensified a lot while she had been caught in one of those weird battles of herself and the other self that seemed to enjoy alerting her to her more... carnal urges, she told Inuyasha:

"It really feels kinda near now, I think we should be able to see her now!"

Her soon to be partner in crime pointed to a group of people across the road, a few hundred meters ahead of them.

"Yeah I know, she's over there, I recognize her from before."

Now Kagome, too, was able to make out a group of teenagers on the road that seconds ago had been empty, though how Inuyasha recognized the girl without being able to see the pinkish glow of the shard she emanated she didn't know, they'd only seen her for but a few seconds before her 'girlfriend' had attacked Inuyasha in an explosion of jealousy.

The group consisted of a few girls, four to be exact, probably some of those who had eagerly surrounded the one with the shard back in the school corridor, but also of six boys, none of which Kagome remembered having come across yet.

And yet again all of them eagerly crowded around the one girl in a way that made Kagome wonder just what kind of power that Shikon no Tama shard gave to her.

But as she silently took in the sight of the animatedly chattering group that reminded her a lot of those times when she herself had been out with her friends and some guys, she remembered what Inuyasha had told her about the likeliness of a peaceful shard exchange:

„Uhm Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha went from staring ating the teens to staring ating her.

„Yeah?"

„You do realize that they are ten of them and only two of us, right? You said we were going to have to fight the girl about the shard, but what do we do now? We are a little outnumbered I would say."

He stared at her bewilderedly.

„We'll fight her about the shard of course, what do you think? _You_ are the one who is in such a hurry to get this over with so that our counterparts won't fall behind on their studies. So we do it now, before we loose her again."

And with that he started marching across the road.

Kagome stood dumbfounded as she watched him coming to a halt a few meters away from the group, hands on his hips, and with a loud

„OI!"

gaining their attention. When each and everyone of them fell silent and looked at him in surprise he announced their options to them in a way that had the more humorous part of Kagome comment 'Well no, it certainly weren't his negotiation skills that they had him accompany me for... '.

„ Hey bitch, yeah you, the one with the blue shirt, I want that necklace you've got there. Give it to me or I'll take it!"

As Kagome started walking towards Inuyasha, inspecting the girl with the shard more closely she realized that, how ever he managed to figure that out, he was right. The pink glow surrounding the girl had it's source in a tiny splinter of pink glass that she wore as a pendant on a silver necklace around her neck.

Inuyasha seemed to grow inpatient as by the time Kagome had arrived by his side none of his supposed opponents, not even the girl in question had graced him with a response yet, they just kept on staring at him as if he had suddenly fallen out of the sky in a bunny costume and had demanded that they accompany him to his home planet... or at least that was what Kagome considered appropriate with the amount of total bewilderment that showed on their faces. Surely a guy trying to mugg them was not that much of a surprise?

Inuyasha had grown impatient, indeed.

„So which is it, bitch? You gonna give me the goddamn thing or not?"

This time the girl did respond, though probably not the way Inuyasha had expected her to. She laughed, a surprisingly light hearted and girlish laugh. Secretly Kagome had, according to Miroku's descriptions of evil hearted humans and youkai misusing the Tama for their purposes, imagined the girl to be more... intimidating and obviously evil. But she just smiled sweetly.

„Keichii, really, you had me there for a second. What is this about? A joke? A bet?"

When Inuyasha just sighed impatiently and folded his arms over his chest her face soddenly dropped and the glow of the shard intensified slightly.

„You know I told all of you suckers that I am not to be joked with, so piss off and leave me and my friends alone, before I decide to waste my precious time on thinking of a way to remind you where your place is, you scum."

'That's more like it, really'

the humorous part of Kagome, never short of a superfluous comment, observed, while Kagome actually flinched and turned to look at Inuyasha. If he reacted as harshly every time she insulted him in some way then just how would he react to this? But she found him calm and collected, with a stony glare fixing the one of the girl when he repeated:

„Hand over the shard or I'll take it!"

And, to prove he really wasn't joking, he started walking towards the girl.

It wasn't until then that Kagome became aware of the obvious logical mistake in his reasoning a few minutes ago, and while she mentally fended off a bunch of grinning 'DUH!' monkeys she grabbed his shoulder forcefully, this time ignoring the fact that he hated to be touched without his permission, pulled him back and bowed to whisper into his ear in a voice low enough to keep anyone else from overhearing.

"Inuyasha! We didn't have to face her now, are you really that stupid? We could just as well have followed her until she parted with the others and take the shard when she was alone! Why are you endangering yourself in that way? Have you forgotten that you are human in this dimension?"

She figured with the body of a hanyou, if it was half as powerful as what myths said about that of a youkai to be, facing ten teenage humans would have been no problem, but he was human for Christ's sake, and more that a little bit on the skinny side! But he just glared and snapped conceitedly:

"One or ten that's no fucking difference to me! In my original body, as a hanyou, I used to take on more that fifty humans one- handedly-"

He interrupted her as she tried to protest

"And when I said fighting was all I ever did, I meant it! I've been forced to defend myself just about since I could walk, and believe me I was way weaker than this body is, back then! Fighting is mainly about technique not about actual strength!"

At this surprising piece of something about himself Kagome closed her protesting mouth and searched his eyes through which just for a moment the hint of a feeling akin to hurt had flickered, but now they were as stony as before.

'Since he could walk? Who would intend to hurt a small child? How cruel is that!'

But she was ripped out of her musing by the hands that roughly shoved her away from Inuyasha while he was gripped by another pair of those, pinning his arms to his sides.

Obviously the girl had grown mad enough with Inuyasha, who in the body of Keichii, a boy she seemed to know somehow, had offended and threatened her, to send the boys to teach him a lesson of some kind, or in her words remind him where his place was.

Kagome immediately shot forward to help him but the boy who had shoved her away and another one held her back. Meanwhile the three boys left gathered around Inuyasha and the one who held him still and positioned them self for the classical, teenage-bully, four against one defenceless victim beat up. Kagome struggled half heartedly, there was no way she'd be able to shake off two boys at once, but to her surprise their grip on her upper arms loosened.

' Riight, I forgot, my counterpart's body!'

And with a barely suppressed squeal of glee she ripped her arms out of the boy's grip, rushing forward to Inuyasha who was just about to receive the first punch, or maybe already the second, aimed at his stomach.

Suddenly the girl with the shard spoke up again:

„Hey you morons! Take down the girl first, she's the actual danger here! Keichii isn't going to take but one of you to be held back, but she, you know her, she's that maniac, gay rambo chick!"

The boys turned immediately, except for the one who held Inuyasha and all but fell over each other in an rushed attempt to comply and get a hold of Kagome. She shrieked and Inuyasha, perhaps heroically trying to regain their attention taunted:

„So you're not only ganging up against one single man, but also willing to fucking hit a woman? You are even more of a bunch of fucking honour less cowards than I first thought!"

But the boys ignored him and advanced on Kagome who stepped back with every step they took towards her, until she, suddenly, found herself locked in the grip of the remaining two again. Before Inuyasha was able to throw the next piece of his mind at the boys Kagome was, without a further word or hint from her attackers, hit by two fists, one snapping her head to the side as it connected with her jaw and the other one ramming into her stomach so forcefully that all air was pressed out of her lounges and she sank to the ground, suddenly deprived of the power to hold herself up any longer when the boys holding her released her arms.

She groaned as black seeped into the edges of her view and curled up as if that would somehow prevent the pain from robbing her conciousness. She closed her eyes only to open then again as she heard an almost bestial scream of utter rage that echoed through the street. Was that Inuyasha?

If the sight that presented itself to her within the following minutes told her anything those were basically two things: Firstly Inuyasha had been right when he said that fighting was more a question of technique than anything else, she saw that now.

But Secondly he had obviously forgotten to mention what kind of , well, positive ? effect anger and feral aggression could have on the strength department.

Within seconds after the boys had punched Kagome he had bent forward and thrown the boy who clutched his arms across his back to the ground. He regained his footing immediately and brutally jumped onto him, knocked the air out of his lounges, then crouched down and with a well aimed punch against the solar plexus knocked him out completely.

He sprung up and leaped towards the rest of the boys, who were only just about to understand what was going on there behind their backs, and tackled the one who had punched Kagome's jaw against the brick wall behind him, drew up his knee, rammed it where no man wants to have another one's knee rammed into, set his foot back on to the ground, swiftly grabbed the boy's head when he doubled over in pain and pushed it down to meet his other knee. By the time the boys nose broke with a sickeningly loud and wet noise the others had only just finished turning around to face Inuyasha, mouths hanging open in surprise.

„Kagome!"

It took her a few seconds with her hazy mind to articulate a cracked voiced answer.

„Yes?"

„Get the hell away from here, you don't want to be hurt more than that, right!"

„Oh, ok."

And while Kagome crawled away from the wall and over the boy with the broken nose to be out of the way, silently wondering how much she was allowed to interpret into that comment, or the fact that he had actually called her by her name, Inuyasha waited for the remaining four boys to attack.

Kagome managed to lean against the tire of a car parked at the pavement and watched in awe as Inuyasha fought. While he did that she found it surprisingly much easier to picture him the way she knew he really looked like, his wild and deadly stile of fighting somehow reminded her of that aura of untamedness and underlying aggression he had emanated back in that weird soul store room.

The way he fought was no martial art, at least if 'art' meant to suggest that there should be something aesthetic about it. His movements didn't look as graceful or regulated as those of the TV fighters, or even live tournament fighters Kagome had seen so far.

Every move he made was to inflict the most damage possible, not to look good, and he fought in wild abandon, not with stoic control. Efficiency was his concept, not art.

Kagome felt a strange shiver of sympathy surge through her as she realized that she could only just begin to imagine what kind of a life he must have lived to learn to fight that way. But as the fight went on she found herself unable to focus on that feeling. A more amoral part of her took over and decided that among other things watching Inuyasha fight was also damn entertaining.

When the boys charged onto him, all at once, he waited until they were just entering punching range, took a step to the side in what looked like an attempt to escape but then, with an almost wicked grin playing on his features that made Kagome wonder whether he actually enjoyed this, turned and send the boy closest to him to the ground with a quick, forceful kick against his kneecap, that was once again accompanied by a loud cracking noise.

He jumped across his latest victim and behind his next, the tallest and toughest looking guy of the group, grabbed his left arm, twisted it against the boy's back, at the same time in a blur of motion forcing his knees bent with two quick kicks into the hollows of his knees. When the boy lost his balance and began sinking to the ground he shoved him forwards, grabbing his other arm in the process and jumped onto the poor boy's back to increase the impact his face hit the ground with. He lost his footing for a split second, standing awkwardly on the back of the guy, and the remaining two used that second to finally get their hands on him. One grabbed him by his arms and twisted them behind his back and before Inuyasha could hurl him over his back like he'd done with his comrade the other one began hitting him with anger fuelled force. Inuyasha took a few punches struggling only slightly, so that Kagome wondered whether they had him now and immediately tried to lift herself off the ground to help him, but the slightest movement sent jolts of pain through her body and she collapsed again with a groan.

She dared not actually make that connection but a uselessly (and twistedly) romantic part of herself pointed out that somehow her pain seemed to give Inuyasha the motivation to fight, he hadn't started to do so until those boys had hit her and now again, as soon as she groaned in pain he seemed to come to life again.

He suddenly tensed, then threw his legs high up into the air, slinging them around the neck of the boy hitting him and with a twist of his hip threw him off balance. As the boy fell he set his legs back onto he ground again and bent to throw the boy holding him over his back, ripping his arms out of his grip. As the two boys lay on the ground before him he staring ated them with disgust for a second.

Then he turned and left them to scramble to their feet and do the first reasonable thing since that girl had somehow made them attack Inuyasha: They stumblingly hurried away with tiny whines of panic.

Inuyasha spared the scene before him, the other fallen boys, a quick glance, then went to crouch down next to Kagome.

"Can you get up?"

"Yeah, I think I can."

Kagome slowly pulled herself up with the aid of the car behind her and managed to stand on shaky legs. She touched her aching belly and groaned, then smiled slightly, despite her discomfort.

"So it's really all about technique, eh? That rambo body of mine really was no use at all..."

Inuyasha looked at her a little surprised, then reached out to carefully touch her jaw, which sent a jolt of pain through it despite his tenderness.

"That's gonna be one hell of a bruise tomorrow, your counterpart will freak as soon as she sees herself."

But Kagome just gawked in surprise, dumbfounded by this completely non characteristic, at least non characteristic for what she'd seen of him so far, display of badly hidden concern. And he was probably even worse off than her, his lip was split awfully and had yet to stop bleeding, as did his nose, and there was a sore spot on his cheek that seemed to swell while Kagome looked at it.

As if he'd read her thoughts Inuyasha abruptly dropped his hand and turned around again. He stiffened suddenly, probably because he just realized what Kagome did that very moment:

The girl was gone again!

"Gods who would have thought that shard hunting could be that exhausting?"

Kagome struggled to even her breathing as she leaned against the tall brick wall assumably surrounding a large garden. And somewhere inside that garden there stood a house, and somewhere inside that house there was a girl and around that girls neck there was the shard of the Shikon no Tama, which she was intend on finding now more that ever, and if only to be able to leave this aching, worn out body.

Yes, to Kagome's absolute delight she had, after a few seconds of total shock, realised that the girl with the shard, despite her obviously hasty departure, was still within the range of her 'shard radar'. So they had been able to follow her and initiate 'plan B' that actually was 'plan A': follow and corner her when she's _alone, _not accompanied by a bunch of guys.

But, they had, due to their, well, kind of wrecked means of transport, their bodies, not been capable of running any more, or at least Kagome was, and so when they arrived at the gate leading to the assumed home of the shard, eh girl, she'd already gone inside.

"I would."

"Huh?"

During her recapitulation of the last hour or so, Kagome had forgotten that she'd posed a question, though, actually that had been a rhetorical one, anyway.

"Well, I would have thought that shard hunting would be that exhausting, cuz' when that fucking jewel is concerned, things just won't go easy."

Inuyasha had, obviously just as worn out as Kagome felt, simply dropped to the ground besides the gate, from where he now avoided her stare as soon as he realized that he had clumsily reminded Kagome of the fact that he knew something about the Shikon no Tama that she didn't know.

Kagome just slid to the ground along the wall and sighed.

'Oh well, if he's so reluctant to share that info... I guess that's alright, probably it's just something very personal, or he wouldn't make such a fuzz about it.'

Or maybe he would, just to spite her, but anyway, right now she was just to tired to bother.

For a while they just sat in a somewhat comfortable silence but the longer Kagome let her thoughts trail unhinderedly, the further back they travelled, until she found herself unable to keep a neatly buried, nailed shut realization from surfacing.

She was dead. She had, by her very own stupidity been ripped out of her life, a life that by any one else's standards might have had to be called insignificant, but to her it hadn't been, cause there had been people that loved her, more importantly people she loved, her friends, her family, her Mama... gods, how she missed her Mama... and to think that maybe... in case they did not manage to recollect the shards, she was never going to see her loved ones again, she would be reborn and would just forget about them,would never get the chance to tell them all how much they meant to her...

And now that she thought about it, she was dead, that meant that they would grieve, would mourn, that people would cry because of her, that her Mama's heart would break another time, like it had when she lost her husband... And she herself, she would never get the chance to live her life to it's fullest, she had died before she'd fallen in love for the first time, a few crushes, yes, but love... She had never been so engulfed in the thoughts about that one person that even breathing seemed unnecessary compared keeping that picture floating around your mind. Right now she even longed for the pains that feeling brought along with it, she would have liked to believe the world had ended just because of what she felt for someone before her world ended for real.

Nostalgia mingled with longing and wrapped around regret as hope suddenly stood to hurriedly leave the room and she felt like a surge of energy left her as her arms dropped to the ground.

Kagome felt a flood of tears waiting to break free from her tightly closed eyelids as grief manifested in her the way it always did when it became to much for her mind to bear: her insides clenched into a tight cramp of agony and she doubled over as her lower lip started trembling along with her shoulders.

She was well aware that she was drowning in self-pity, acting stupid and weak, and she normally knew better than to give up on things before they even started, she had been called strong willed more than once, but right here, in this foreign world, caught in a foreign body and with no-one around to offer her comfort except for Inuyasha (who, considering his closed-up-ness, really counted as no-one), she simply was unable to drag herself out of that whole she knowingly spiralled into.

So she just let it all out.

"I was after it myself, once."

"Huh?"

As the first tears spilled from her eyes Inuyasha's voice suddenly cut through the hypnotic hum of the blood pounding in her ears and she lifted her head to find him looking at her with a strange kind of intensity, his eyebrows drawn together in an almost reproachful frown, that eased and turned into one of insecurity and maybe even fear as soon as he saw the tears, now unhinderedly falling from Kagome's eyes in a steady, salty stream.

Yet, casting his eyes away from hers again and staring at something behind her, he repeated what he said seconds ago, explaining his words.

" The Shikon no Tama. I wanted to have it for myself once, long time ago."

"But how?"

Between two shudders that brought forth new eruptions of salty liquid from her tear glands, Kagome managed to choke out that that question through her slimy throat, glad to have something else to focus on except well... what she didn't want to focus on.

"You don't appear to be much older than I am, and Miroku said the Tama was banned from our dimension centuries ago! Just how... "

Hanyou. The word suddenly appeared in her mind, in a way of answering her own question.

"I'm a -"

"Hanyou. Is it cause you're half youkai? Do youkai live longer than humans?"

His eyebrows drew up before he answered, and he went from staring at that something behind her to glancing up to the sky that was turning anthracite as the sun had sunk a while ago.

"Yeah, youkai are immortal in a way, they don't die, unless they are killed that is... about Hanyous I don't know... I never heard of any of them growing older than what could be considered an average human lifespan, but none of them died naturally so..."

Kagome all but gawked at him as he spoke, dazzled by this sudden exposure of his, and of course the implications of what he told her.

"How old are you then?" She dared to ask.

"That's a little hard to tell... but by Christian reckoning I was born in 1204."

"You were what!"

Kagome's tears ran dry as she stared at the boy in disbelief.

"1204? But then you're actually..."

she quickly did the maths but he was faster.

"Seven hundred years old, yeah, or I would have been nearly that old, I died in 1984, that's twenty years before I would have reached that age."

She had to crane her neck to even make out his words, he was mumbling almost incoherently, speaking slowly as if he rolled every word around his mouth before uttering it, carefully weighing the impact it might create.

"But that's not actually true either, you know my life used to be a little complicated once and... well you could say that I spend 'round five hundred years in some kind of an artificial coma, y' know, banned 's all you need to know, and so in my head I'm really only about two hundred years old."

'Only two-'

Thoughts stumbled over one another inside Kagome's head as she tried to process what she'd just been told in that nonchalant way, ' y' know, banned 's all you need to know' hah! Was not!

She stared at that strange boy - or should she be saying old man really? - stared at him so long that the tears on her face dried into an itchy film, which she rubbed away with the sleeve of her blouse absently while she thought about what to say.

Thought about what to say very carefully, because she realised that if a guy who thought that everything that concerned him did just that and nothing more, a guy who might be diagnosed almost anti-social, well no, more like social-phobic tendencies, if that very guy suddenly chose to expose himself to an almost stranger, then no matter his possible motives, you had to handle him with caution so you didn't provoke him into taking it all back and closing himself in again.

A technical question was probably better that a comment, so:

"You've been banned for 400 years? When did you wake up again, then?"

In the meagre light she couldn't be to sure, but she had feeling that he was watching her out of the corner of his eye, all the while pretending to watch the sky. But when she spoke again he actually turned to face her, staring ating her curiously, as if that had not been what he'd expected her to ask, and reluctantly answered.

"I woke in 1927. I later figured that I had been banned in 1454, so it lasted actually only 473 years."

Wow. He actually told her something about himself. Weird that he did that just when she'd been about to cry, but oh well, coincidences wouldn't be coincidences if they just happened, they happened at a good time or a bad one. And then he didn't just tell her anything but this, the most unbelievable thing she'd heard in her life. The ears, the eyes and the claws she had almost no problem to accept... but that jerkish, immature... well, jerk actually was 700 years old? Or 200, that was just as unbelievable.

She was about to ask something else when suddenly her stomach rumbled so loudly that a bird that must have been sitting on the wall over them, flew away hurriedly.

"You hungry?" Inuyasha asked, maybe amusedly.

Kagome grinned peevishly, as she felt the pressure of that moment seconds ago ease, along with Inuyasha's willingness to talk, but oh well, she knew something now.

"I didn't realize until now but it figures, I haven't eaten a thing since we entered this dimension. You haven't, either, actually."

"Yeah I know, I'm kinda hungry, too. Just doesn't bother me that much... well then."

He suddenly stood and dusted off his clothes.

"What are you doing?"

He looked at her like he thought she was mad.

"I'm going looking for something to eat, what else? There's no way we're gonna make it through the night _and_ will be up to facing that bitch tomorrow without it."

"Well I'm coming with you."

She began to rouse carefully.

"No you're not! "

"Am too! Who knows what you'll do when I'm not there to think for you? "

He ignored that insult, she hadn't really meant for it to be one anyway, it was just true, and kept on arguing.

"Someone has to stay back here and watch the house, what if that girl leaves again?"

"So what? She lives here, she'll return eventually."

"We don't know that! She could be at a friend's for all we know!"

"I can sense those shards from quite a distance, if we stay close enough I'll realize as soon as she moves and we'll be right after her again."

When she saw him already struggling to counter that she added:

"Please Inuyasha? Please, I really just don't want to be alone right now... "

He looked a little scared now, what of though... anyway, he suddenly turned and walked away. Kagome followed, catching up easily despite the state she was in.

He didn't look like he was about to converse, but still, just not being alone would hopefully keep her thoughts off all those things lurking at the back of her awareness.

"You still feeling that shard?"

Inuyasha broke the silence as they neared a small shopping mall.

"Huh? Oh yeah, hasn't moved an inch since we left."

Kagome, who had been busy humming a weird medley of some of her favourite songs because she had found that to be the perfect way of keeping her mind off of... certain facts, assured.

They entered the mall and marched towards a grocery shop in front of which Inuyasha stopped and turned to her.

"Ok. I'll go in there and organize us something to eat and you'll stay right here and keep an eye – no your mind... whatever on that shard. I won't be long just wait."

And before Kagome could respond the automatic doors had already closed behind him again. She figured that she would survive a few minutes alone as long as she kept up the humming so she spared herself the useless going after him and engaging into yet another discussion of the 'is not' – 'is too' kind.

As she stood there humming she stuffed her hands into the pockets of her skirt she suddenly realised something essential.

They were empty. ...well, except for a used handkerchief, a few of those thingies you open cans with, a small pocket knife, as well as something squishy she didn't want to identify, but the point was, there was no purse or anything that would contain money in it and she knew for sure that there hadn't been a similar thing inside Inuyasha's pockets. (Not that she had been checking out his ass or anything... ) So the million dollar question was... How was he going to 'organise' something to eat – no scratch that, she could very well imagine how – but what on earth was he _thinking_! If he got caught Kagome would have to go after that shard alone, and that was not something she'd chose to if given the choice, considering around whose neck that shard hung. And he would also get his counterpart into serious trouble, not a very nice thing to do, either.

She was about to storm into the shop to prevent that catastrophe when the doors parted and Inuyasha stepped out, concentratedly unwrapping an energy bar of some kind and motioning with his head for her to follow as he walked towards the exit of the mall.

When he passed her Kagome saw that he was now wearing a backpack she'd never seen before and the only thing that kept her from screaming abuse at him was that she really did _not_ want to face that girl alone.

Which did of course _not_ mean that she'd let that slide just like that. So as soon as the automatic doors had closed around them she took a deep breath and... was, before she could verbalize her hurt righteousness, grabbed by her hand and with a low voiced

"Keep walking and shut up!" pulled along by the culprit himself.

About to protest vehemently she was interrupted yet again, this time though by a slightly muted cry from inside the mall that sounded suspiciously like

'There it is! That's my rucksack!".

At the very same time Inuyasha broke into a sprint, whatever he had stolen clunking inside the backpack, and she had no choice but to join him as he was still holding her hand.

'Nooooooo' her muscles and most of all her still hurting stomach screamed. 'No more running, pleeease!'

But it couldn't be helped, when they rounded a corner she threw a brief look back and saw that there were at least three people following them now, people one of which was a bulky security guy.

She ran as fast as she could, hardly paying attention to her surroundings, but Inuyasha did, she realized, because shard feeling grew stronger the more they ran, which meant that they were, despite their hasty flight, returning to the shard-girl's house. It was definitely not bad having someone like him around. Though, then again each of the situations where his... survival skills had proven useful were completely his very own fault...

They had managed to enlarge the distance between them and their persecutors a little, their bodies were even in this rather wrecked state still those of two very sportive teenagers. That and the fact that it was completely dark by then, heightened their chances to escape successfully, Kagome noted, allowing herself a careful bit of relief.

As they slithered around another corner they entered a road Kagome remembered them having walked along before, and somewhere on the other side of that road there stood an empty, old house that had caught her attention because it looked so romantically haunted.

"Hey Inuyasha."

she panted as soon as she saw the house in the bright light of the street lights, pointing towards it.

"Let's just hide in there and wait until they pass us!"

"No. Come on."

Instead of crossing the road and doing the logical thing Inuyasha pulled her behind a large public garbage container.

"Why not? Behind here they're gonna see us as soon as they pass us."

"No. They are going to go looking for us in that empty house as soon as they find the street empty cause hiding in there is just the cliché, adolescent thing they'll expect us to do. Now hush!"

She planned to tell him to go screw his paranoid reasoning and just hide inside that house without him, but she was to late, she heard voices nearing, angry voices, and then fragments of a agitated conversation along the lines of:

'... are they... hiding somewh... must find... kill... 'king bastards'

When their followers stopped only a few meters away from their hiding place and in perfect hearing range, Kagome, who felt the beginnings of a healthy panic gripping her, overheard them discussing the optimal course of action, and when she was just about to release the breath she held in anxiously they suddenly agreed to try – the empty house across the road because it was "just like those doped and fucked up teenage muggers to think that's a brilliant idea."

And with tears in her eyes (from holding her breath that long not from being so relieved.) she glanced around Inuyasha and watched them cross the road and enter the building in question.

She didn't need to look at his face to imagine the smuggedysmug expression on it.

"Ok so you were right... thanks I guess." she forced forth, hoping to pacify his boosted self-opinionated urges as well as her own hurt ones.

She stood and started walking down the street until Inuyasha caught up with her. When she faced him then his grin had almost faded.

"Come on we don't have that long until they'll realise that we're not in there." and he sprinted off yet again.

After they had ran along a few more roads, entering the villa-area that girl lived in, they allowed themselves to slow down into a slight jog until they stood in front of the very same wall they had sat by some time ago.

Inuyasha struggled a little to calm his still unsteady breathing.

"I don't think it's that good of an idea if we spend the night here, in front of the house. Let's ... " He glanced around, then pointed to something behind her. " Let's climb up that tree there."

When Kagome turned around she saw what he was talking about: a few meters behind her, inside the garden surrounding the house but close to the wall stood a large tree, some of it's branches reached over the wall, one even stretched almost across the whole pavement. But the wall was rather tall, and so were the branches, so that Kagome, who couldn't even recall the last time she had climbed up a tree, was bound to protest.

"There's no way I'll manage to get up there, and what if I fall asleep on it? I'll fall and break my neck again – no thank you!"

Inuyasha sighed impatiently.

"About the climbing up: I'll show you how, it's easy. About falling down: I've spent more than a century of my life sleeping in trees, it's no problem as long as the branches are thick enough, and these are. That tree is just the best hiding place around here, and we _have _to hide somewhere, cause if someone sees two kids in their school uniforms hangin' around in front of a villa in the middle of the night they won't just walk on by _and_ those guys from the mall might still be around."

That sounded almost sensible, but still, the tree looked awfully tall and unwelcoming.

"Well, I don't care what you'll do - " He briskly walked past her, "I'll go up there now"

And he jumped, grasping the lowest branch, slung his legs around it and then acrobated himself on top of it. He balanced towards the trunk, across the wall, and went to climbing further up, then suddenly halted and looked down to her with a grin.

"Besides, I still have all the food..."

Ohh the nerve of him! That teasing, arrogant prick! ...But she was almost starving... or so she felt. And he probably wouldn't throw something down for her.

'Looks like I don't have a a choice. Just wonderful!'

Well she wasn't too eager to meet with those guys Inuyasha obviously had stolen the backpack of, either.

'But god help me if I let that prick tell me how to climb up there. I'll do that on my own.'

And so she determinedly stepped under the branch he had used to mount their assumed lodgement for the night.

After a few dissatisfying moments of dangling she decided that it would have been for the best had she stopped being a child a few years later because then she'd now remember how on earth she was supposed to bring her legs over her head and around that branch.

A few more seconds passed during which her arms seemed to gain a few inches in length until it occurred to her to just use the wall right in front of her to help her up and somehow, once she koala beared the branch, with the wall the rest was fairly easy, so she climbed after Inuyasha, through the thick tangle of twigs and leaves, her already rhythmically grumbling stomach urging her to hurry.

She found him sitting on an almost comfortable looking, broad branch, leaning against the trunk, the backpack on his knees about to retrieve something from it.

Before he could utter any comment, either about the fact that she had climbed the tree although she didn't want to or that it took her so long, and that comment was sure to come, she sat down on the same branch, straddling it, and reached for the backpack.

"So what did you 'organize' there? I'm starving."

"Well, " he obviously would be able to do without a comment and instead began digging things out of the bag.

"Choice is yours, I'd say. I got some fruit- " he briefly lifted a net of oranges then dropped it again "One more of those energy bars, though they aren't that tasty, I also have bread and some cheese, some chocolate and oh yeah, if you want to drink something I got water, juice, and red wine... and some weird yoghurt drink stuff. And you can have some of that artificial crab meat, I took some of that, too. If you want something warm, I have some very suspicious looking self heating instant ramen."

Kagome felt her mouth slightly gape open as he continued to enthusiastically list the things he had in that bag.

"How on this earth did you manage to steal that many things in that short amount of time? Do they employ only blinds in that shop? Why didn't anyone notice? That shop was full of people!"

He shrugged.

"I just am a very experienced shoplifter. And most people don't really care whether anyone steals something or not, they just look away, or whatever. Well and in case someone does alarm the security, that's why I always use someone else's bag, you can still claim that you found it or anything, after all you can prove it's not yours. Now what do you want? I think I'll try that ramen."

"Are you saying that you just walked in there, took someone's backpack and walked around openly putting things in it? And then what? You just passed the checkouts with that backpack and no-one suspected a thing? With that beat up face?"

"No, I did the old 'buy something cheap, which was that awful energy bar, and behave naturally while you bags are full of stuff' trick. I found a little change in my pockets."

Kagome briefly pondered whether she ought to lecture him about shoplifting being amoral and such, but she was so very hungry she couldn't quite staring at the strength to care, and so she just took the package of ramen Inuyasha offered and hurriedly twisted the thingy that started the chemical reaction heating the soup.

They didn't have chopsticks, so it got a little messy when she tried to taste it, but after a first sip she decided anyway that she couldn't imagine herself being hungry and desperate enough to be willing and able to eat this. It tasted like a lot of things, chicken among other things, but not the good chicken, the 'chicken' everyone who ever ate meat of a strange animal claimed it tasted like. Who knew just what they put in there to create that taste. She just offered it to Inuyasha who took it gladly, he seemed to actually like that crap, a lot judging by the way he devoured it.

She ate bread with cheese and some of the crabby stuff instead, drank one of those yoghurt drinks and then began to peel an orange. More out of habit than anything, she and her brother often shared – no used to... share oranges while watching TV, she gave half of it to Inuyasha who was now exterminating the rest of the fake crab. He accepted it surprisedly, he probably thought she was still mad at him or something, and she would have been normally, but he even brought chocolate, Kagome just couldn't hold a grudge against someone who gave her chocolate... so she generously forgave him his teasing and overall arrogance.

Or would till his next lapse.

Miraculously Inuyasha had also managed to 'organise' a blanket, it was actually supposed to be a tablecloth and had a incredibly ugly fish pattern on it, but it was better than just a summer school uniform, it had gotten kind of chilly the longer there was no sun to heat the atmosphere.

As soon as she leaned against the trunk on another branch a little above Inuyasha's, happily letting chocolate melt on her tongue, she realised that Inuyasha must have been making the stuff about sleeping in trees up. There was no way she would _not_ fall out of it as soon as she fell asleep, even if she weren't a person who trashed around a lot in their sleep, which she happened to be. But climbing down again seemed out of question, too, she was so tired now, her arms felt like they would just rip off the next time she'd use them to lift something heavier than a bottle of water, leave alone support her full bodyweight. She'd fall either way. She decided to at least try sleeping right here, and hope that _if_ she fell she wouldn't fall deep, maybe even onto Inuyasha to punish him for insisting that they sleep here. So she wiggled around a little until she was about comfortable, snuggled into the blanket and closed her eyes.

"Fuck!"

Kagome had been about to doze off slightly when suddenly Inuyasha cursed loudly. Lazily she looked down to see what was up with him and found him frowning at a dark green bottle, probably the wine he'd been talking about earlier.

'Yeah 'bout that. Why did he bring any in the first place?'

"What is it? Got the wrong year?" she half joked.

He shot her a short glare but she was taken aback anyway. His eyes screamed of angry frustration, he really was very upset about something. The wine for some reason, obviously, judging by the way he continued to glare at the bottle.

"I took this wine but in my rush to get that useless blanket I forgot to take a corkscrew. I can't get the fucking thing out!"

"Jeez so what? We still have plenty of water and yoghurt drinks. It's not like wine tastes good or anything. Just leave it be."

But he didn't really seem to be listening, just poked at the cork sealing the bottle.

Suddenly he began murmuring, in a way of asking her but probably talking to himself.

"... Now, which is better, pushing the cork inside, though then it tastes awful and gets in the way all the time, or chopping the neck off, though that might cause splinters...? well this isn't my body anyway..."

Kagome could not quite believe what she was hearing.

"Are you out of your mind? Just because this is not your body doesn't mean you can just go and waste it like that! Eating pieces of glass might even kill this body! Gods, are you really that desperate?"

She suddenly remembered the pocket knife she had found earlier and all but threw it at him.

"Here."

He caught it swiftly, unfolded the corkscrew device and began screwing it in immediately.

"How about thanks?"

Se really was about to get irritated again, big time, she didn't even fell particularly tired anymore. He graced her with a short nod, interrupted himself when he managed to open the bottle. He sighed happily, leaned back against the trunk and began gulping down the wine hurriedly. Then he set the bottle into his lap and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Dear god, what are you, an alcoholic?" Kagome inquired, slightly disturbed.

That snapped him out of his happy trance like contentment. He glared at her, obviously enraged.

"I'm _not_ an alcoholic! I just can't fucking sleep without having drunk at least a few beer, nothing more!"

Kagome glared right back, wondering whether she should be laughing or beating him over the head. Both perhaps.

"You know, that _is_ usually one of the most obvious hints that someone has an alcohol addiction! Does that mean that you were drinking on a daily basis when you were still alive?"

"None of you business."

He took another swig from the bottle.

That again. Well she knew now that there was no way she'd get anything out of him he didn't want to talk about, but maybe he would do so by himself if she just _didn't_ pry, like before.

What a strange boy he was. One moment he was plain immature and jerkish, the next he was all subdued, almost melancholic and one could easily detect that he must have been hurt a lot during his life, then, when it came to fighting or anything he was suddenly frighteningly calm and wild at the same time, and deadly efficient, experienced, and then there were these rare occasions where it seemed like he, beneath all that, actually did care about someone other than him.

And now, on top of it all, he also was some kind of an alcoholic. It would be sooo fun working with him... No she shouldn't be thinking that way, she scolded herself. He wasn't all bad, he probably really was a lot more thoughtful and concerned than he let on, he had, in fact, brought her chocolate _and _even a blanket and had actually, although in mid fight, taken care that she wouldn't be hurt further. Alcoholism was, after all, a disease, a mental and physical illness and was to be taken serious, she knew that because one of her uncles had had the same problem, with the unpleasant addition that he was a drinker of the aggressive kind, the ones that tended to loose their temper so fast under the influence of alcohol they would even beat up their loved ones. He also, much like Inuyasha, had been in denial about his addiction, unwilling to accept help until one night in a drunken frenzy he had hit his wife. He had sought help then, and was still in therapy but things went well...

Kagome gulped as she felt the familiar lump build in her throat, she'd let her guard down for a second and immediately the cleanly suppressed and ignored memories of her family, her life back when she still was alive, sneakily found their way back into her awareness, and she was but one step away from the familiar spiral leading to self pity and eventually tears.

She fought the draw of that spiral for a while, she even fell back on the stupid humming thing but now every song she mixed into her medley seemed to remind her of something that only fed the spiral, increased the suction of it's current.

In the end she gave in, what was the point fighting it, anyway? She knew all to well that suppressed feelings didn't just disappear, they just became a constant part of your personality, thus making you even weaker than you could ever be in the very moment you gave into them. So she allowed herself all the pessimism and sadness that crowded her mind.

They'd never ever collect all jewel shards, she was just plain useless, couldn't defend herself properly, even with such a body, Inuyasha was just way to impulsive _and_ had a serious drinking problem. What a team they were. But if they didn't collect the shards she wouldn't be given back her life and she'd be reborn to forget all that once held her heart, just like they would eventually forget about her...

Shoulders slumped, insides clenched, lips shook and tears began to spill as Kagome pressed the blanket against her mouth to mute her sobs.

"It's the only way... "

Again - was she allowed to see a trend here? Inuyasha's slurred voice snapped her out of her despair, or managed to keep her mind of all the things causing it, at least. Glancing down through watery eyes she could make him out sitting there, looking up to her. She blinked until her eyes were tear free and staring ated him silently for a while, wondering whether he actually did this on purpose, whether he somehow knew when she was about to cry and this was his way of comforting her. Oh yeah, he had said something, too, something weird actually.

"... The only way?"

"Theonly fucking way ta make idall go away... to calm me ... no-one can sleep withese things in their head, b'lieve me... It's been like that 'ver since... no maybe it's always been like that... once ... once when I was takin' a pause withall the shit I didn't sleep fora whole month... no 34 days exactly ...y'know with humans the delusions startafter 52 hours or so... with hanyous it's 29 days exactly..."

It took her a while to figure out that he was talking about drinking, about why he drank, to be exact. He had obviously drunken the whole bottle of wine, at least he didn't seem to have it anymore, and was now seriously plastered, probably his dimension counterpart didn't share that hobby with him, at least his body didn't seem to be used to alcohol at all.

He was still looking at her, was trying to, more like, but he seemed to have trouble focussing sometimes, his eyes were watery and reflected the moonlight breaking through the leaves and his cheeks were slightly tinted.

'He looks like an innocent child now... well if it weren't for the bruises he would... at least he's not an aggressive drinker... at least that seems so...'

When he began talking about delusions she actually focussed on what he was telling her.

"You mean you spent..." He was, even in this state, faster than her when it came to calculations... what a disgrace..

"...5 days seeing things... feeling things... yeah..." He snickered. " To think that some people pay to expir- expp- exp'rience that shit..."

"And then?"

34 days of insomnia. She'd once spent 34 _hours _awake, on a sleep over party that just wouldn't end, totally hyper on all the coke she'd drunken... but 34 _days_? And then delusions? Seeing things? She'd once read that the delusions caused by sleep deprivation could get as fierce as those of withdrawal or serious mental illnesses, that one actually died after more than 60 or so hours without sleep.

"I gave in, drank and passed out in the bar."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Someone threw me out when they wanned to close 'n couldn't wake me up... I dunno what happened then, but I woke a full hour train ride away near the Wannsee... I slept wonderfully, though..."

"The Wuannosae..? "She struggled with the foreign word.

"That's near Berlin." He explained.

"That's in... Germany. What were you doing there?"

"Living since the late seventies."

"You lived in Berlin?"

She'd always wondered when on earth she'd ever need all that information of her endless History classes on the Cold War; had she been told back then that some day they would make her able to converse with a drunken Hanyou whilst sitting in a tree in another dimension... she would probably not have believed that.

"Western Berlin or Eastern Berlin?"

"Western, I wasn't that muchofa socialist to willingly live under a fuckin' total- totallyt totalitarian regime... "

Yeeha, she actually knew what he was talking about! (A.N.: If you don't, but want to, I'll leave a link to a site explaining it at the bottom A.N.s... if I find one that is neutral and not totally non liberal, that is.)

"But how did you end up there in the first place?"

Kagome inquired, silently thanking Inuyasha for being of the talkative drinker kind... he would probably hate her tomorrow, if he remembered what he'd told her... but oh well they weren't actually discussing anything intimate or anything so there was no need to feel bad about it.

"I fled... couldn't stand it any longer..."

He shut his eyes and shivered, obviously, whatever had made him flee somehow still haunted him.

Oh. Maybe they were discussing something intimate.

"I had to escape it... they were everywhere... a new one each day..."

He drew his knees to his chest, curling into himself as to protect himself from whatever drove him away back then.

Kagome felt her heart swell with sympathy. Life had obviously never gone easy on him. She dared not ask what it was that still scared him so.

"To think thadonly a few years before, I'd been practically livin' in my personal heaven... everything was fuckin' perfect..."

He suddenly straightened again, a fierce expression on his face.

"Those goddamn disco motherfuckers! I wish I'd known back then who invented that fuckin' shit, I would've gladly killed that bastard! Stain' alive my ass!"

Her jaw dropped.

"When you're saying that you fled you mean you did it to escape disco music?"

"Damn right! It was fuckin' everywhere! Can you imagine that? Every shop you passed played the crap, dozens of tha very best radio stations just changed their fuckin' program, or just stopped... though..."

He seemed to calm down a little. Kagome couldn't help but silently laugh about herself, about the whole situation. There she was, five seconds from patting his head to console him and he'd been this haunted because of disco...

"Though.. to be honest... 'twas really all over already... prolly wasn't really their fault... they'd all been fucking selling their souls ever since Woodstock anyway... Born to be wild my ass!"

He was now sullenly staring off ahead, and a little bit of sadness flickered over his face, or so it looked like in the rather meagre light.

There was a Rock fan in the throes of nostalgia, Kagome thought amusedly, she wasn't all that ignorant when it came to music, she liked all kinds, also the older kinds, and she knew, once again, what he was talking about: The over all commercialisation of the rock music that had gotten so popular throughout the mid and late sixties, first an expression of the youth movements, the protest, some liked to claim the revolution against the overly conservative society, record firms had all to soon realised just what amounts of money could be made with that and had taken over the scene, slowly depriving the movement of it's spirit. That really must have been tough for such a die hard fan as Inuyasha seemed to be one. Oh well...

Looking down to the boy in question she saw that he was still sitting and staring, and she decided that it'd be best to leave him alone now, he didn't look that talkative anymore and she wasn't about to test her luck and ask him another question.

Besides that she really was awfully... tired now...

A.N.: There, a brand new chapter, I'm terribly sorry that it took me so long, but a few things came up (I won't deny though that one of those things is my laziness... )

But it's extra long to make up for that, 29 pages, with my typing speed it's no wonder actually that it took me 5 weeks or so to write it.

Yeah and here's something about the whole Cold War thing I mentioned, for anyone who's interested, just remove the spaces and there you go, it's not actually a very good site or anything but the point is brought across and it's not too prejudiced:

w w w. rp gcse/ history/ 9.html


	6. Of being too kind and too kissed

**A parallel dimensional fairytale**

Chapter 4

Of being too kind and too kissed

Disclaimer: I own lots of things of little worth, like an insane amount of manga, but no breathing and twitching Inuyashas. And neither do I own the series.

AN.: Gah! A reviewer just pointed out that I've been constantly using a word that didn't mean what I thought it did (to muster). I corrected all the related mistakes immediately and I'm still bowing my head in shame, because, honestly, I used it assuming it meant the same it means in German (where it really roughly means to look at someone) without looking it up... well I'm lazy... and sorry. Brrr, stupip, stupid Julia! Anyway, this is why I am so desperately in need of constructive criticism, and I'm really not offended if someone points out my mistakes, I'm thankful! So thank you, and no, you're not too picky, I need people like you! ...I also would be delighted if someone offered to beta read my story so I could avoid things like that in the future... please? Well with that said...

''bout time.'

Inuyasha sighed as the petty emotional turmoil he had created inside himself when he'd shared some memories with that girl settled and emptiness seized his mind again. That emptiness was, after all, the whole reason he kept on pouring every drop of alcohol containing liquid he came across down his throat. He probably really was an alcoholic, he hadn't spent that much time reflecting his behaviour during the last years of his life, but looking back now he realised that by general standards a man who spent less than half of each day sober might be considered just that. But he also knew that general standards didn't apply to him. No one blamed a dying cancer patient for the amounts of morphine he took, right?

He had to admit though, that today being sober had not been as hard as it had been when he'd still been alive. Today he had experienced something entirely new: The feeling he was doing something useful, something really useful, not being a bouncer for a strip bar or some underpaid building worker and whatever job options you had as a impersonated Japanese myth living illegally in a country.

No, there had been several occasions today when he'd felt he was doing something that counted... somehow, in a way his slightly, ok, more than slightly fogged brain could not really grasp, for example fighting had felt like a somewhat right thing to do. Not the optimal thing, ensuring his very own survival, but the justifiable, maybe even honourable thing to do, and he couldn't even recall the last time he had felt like that during a fight... no that was not true... he did remember... though today he was not that sure that his feelings hadn't led him on back then... too many different motivations, emotions had driven him to fight that fight, it was hard to say whether they had been honourable... right now it seemed to him that he had never fought a fight that was as justifiable as the one today. Weird, because he didn't really know why he thought so. No that wasn't true either. He had a faint suspicion that it might have been something to do with the fact that he now was, even though not voluntarily, responsible for someone else besides himself.

Fighting to preserve his own worthless existence did not feel as right as fighting to protect the life of someone as young and naive and whatever as Kagome.

Kagome.

He strained his hearing and managed to catch her slight snoring. What was up with that girl anyway? One moment she was cheerful, almost childish, getting excited over the fact that she wasn't out of breath after running, and the next moment she slumped down and started crying like a helpless child that lost it's mother... well duh! She had lost her mother... and everything else. Maybe she'd been crying about that? Just because he was almost delighted that he was dead now probably didn't mean that her life had been as screwed up as his. Alright, so she had a reason to cry, but still, crying women... or girls, he could absolutely not, not, not stand it. And he, too, had a reason to feel that way – Keh! Inuyasha shook his head wildly to erase those thoughts.

No way was he going to let them take that very direction, not when he had just regained this comfortable alcohol induced apathy. Some things were just meant to be forgotten.

In a way of distracting himself Inuyasha lifted his head to look how Kagome was doing sleeping on a tree for the first time.  
Quite well it seemed, she had figured the only way it worked out on her own, apparently, lying on her stomach with her legs dangling from the branch and her arms cushioning her head. The table cloth he had brought to use as a blanket was tucked only around her torso but she didn't seem to be cold.

Now, with her face relaxed, she did, despite the short, dark hair framing it, appear more feminine again, more like the way she really did. Taking advantage of the fact that she was fast asleep Inuyasha allowed himself to study her a little closer in the meagre moonlight and decided that her counterpart of this dimension even held a vague resemblance to her real form. They had the same lips and slightly similar noses, and the curve of their eyebrows was matching, although the overall shape of their faces was different. He all but stared at her for quite a while until he realized what he was doing and turned away, blushing although no one was around to witness his lapse.

"Stupid girl." He accused, unsure what he was actually accusing her of.

Giving that a little thought he forced himself to consider that he maybe kind of liked that stupid girl... who was not all that stupid but just annoyingly curious... or maybe even not that. It had been a long, long time since he'd last felt something like affection towards another person... which might have been something to do with the fact that he had hardly gone out since he'd moved from the USA to Germany and that when he did he had usually been way too drunk to even decide of which gender the colourful blurs around him were... but anyway, the point was, that this specific part of having social contact had much like the rest, grown too unfamiliar for him to even remember how to deal with it. So she was stupid for making him feel anything when he had hoped he'd left that behind him already. Or drowned it somewhere inside him.

It seemed as though everything he thought about tonight was going to lead out of the emptiness that promised sleep. So he just dropped forwards, lying down on the branch the same way Kagome did and started calculating until his eyes drifted close.

Strangely he was, although he had never attained school, quite the geek when it came to mathematics. One of his friends back in the USA used to still go to high school and Inuyasha had, late one night, in the aftermath of one out of the incessant amounts of parties that used to reign his life back then, sneaked a look into his book to find that what everyone he knew always groaned and bitched about was actually pleasantly relaxing because it was so painstakingly logical. Inuyasha had always liked things that made perfect sense on the very first glance and did not involve subliminal messages that needed to be interpreted. Words were awful, someone could say one thing and mean the opposite (well, he knew he was sarcastic and ironic all of the time, but that didn't mean he liked it in other people.). And words hurt, or gave power to people who shouldn't be given it... well and they betrayed him most of the time.

But two times two was four, nothing could influence that outcome, just as the integral from 1 to e of ln(x) was 1. And numbers themselves hurt no one.

So he had taken on the habit of... borrowing his acquaintances books. It wasn't like they needed them, most of them had dropped out of high school or college that summer anyway. And it wasn't long until he found that when he was drunk, to him doing complicated calculations in his head was like counting sheep to other people. It calmed him into sleep. So what to do today? Perhaps just some simple cubic equations?

In the morning Inuyasha woke with a slight headache and a horribly dry mouth, but he was more than used to that. Groggily he reached for the backpack he'd hung on a branch and retrieved a canister of orange juice. He emptied it hastily and stuffed the bottle back.

As he yawned and stretched a little he glanced up to Kagome and saw her stir in her sleep, her eyes opening slowly. He quickly moved to stand on the branch just in time to catch her when her eyes took in the long distance to the ground and she bolted up, loosing her balance in the process.

"Sleeping on trees is easy, waking up is the problem, I tell you that." He said cheerily, as she pressed her hand to her chest to recover from that early morning shock. She glared.

"You couldn't have possibly told me that _before_ I fell asleep on one, now, could you?"

Inuyasha was in a uncharacteristically good mood that morning, he had slept better that he had in a few years, and so he just shrugged and politely offered her a hand.

"Nope. Now come on down we need to find that girl."

She stared at his hand for a moment and then swatted it away to climb down on her own.

"Uh-oh, someone's cranky this morning." Inuyasha observed as he followed her.

"Hell yeah, I slept horribly. I dreamt of falling the whole night. I even fell down the Eiffel tower and I haven't even ever been to France." Kagome kept on chattering while she climbed down the tree.

"And then I was climbing up a rope, hunted by some scissor monkey who always cut the rope right beneath me, but the rope went on and on and I just kept on climbing and climbing until suddenly another monkey appeared above me and cut the rope. And then I fell again. "

Inuyasha couldn't help but snicker a little. That girl's dreams where just as weird as she was. But at least she didn't seem to be sad anymore. That meant no more crying and no more forcing him to distract her with something. Something that was personal and not actually meant for her to know, but when you have no imagination, what else is there to tell?

"But strangely you were suddenly there and caught me, just like just now."

Inuyasha glanced down to her surprisedly, to find her already on the wall, waiting for him. He jumped to land beside her.

"Can't have been that much of a nightmare if I had an appearance in it, huh?" Inuyasha joked, still not believing how cheerful he felt today. He had dreamt of interestingly shaped graphs, a very comforting dream for once. In addition to that the graphs had smelled oddly pleasant, of fruit and sun, freshly washed cloth, skin and female sweat...

Kagome rolled her eyes but her cheeks grew a tad pinkisher.

"Yeah right." She dropped to her knees and began crawling onto the branch that reached over the pavement. While she struggled to slide around it Inuyasha just went to sit on the wall and dropped to the ground from there, lessening the force of his fall by going into a crouch.

Kagome managed to reach the ground safely, but she took her time and somehow managed to make her skirt ride up all the way to her hips while sliding back and forth on the branch for reasons unknown to Inuyasha, who decided to keep any comment to himself to avoid being declared a hentai again. Besides that, the view of Kagome's counterpart's legs aroused nothing but envy in him, when comparing those rippling bundles of pure power wrapped in fair, smooth skin with the bones and tendons wrapped in overly hairy skin of his counterpart's sprinter body.

Why was it that he, who had been drawn into the whole affair for the sole purpose of keeping that girl safe, got such inadequate equipment whereas said girl got this killing machine of a body and didn't even know how to use it? Hadn't he known that the mysterious woman who claimed to be the creator of all this claimed to keep out of her creation he would have suspected that she'd done it on purpose, just to make things harder for him.

Maybe she'd just been plain lying and she did interfere and really didn't like him (he had no trouble imagining that someone didn't like him, he himself had never brought up the patience necessary to feel sympathy for himself). That was a very pleasant explanation for the overall screwed-up-ness of his life. What made it so pleasant was the fact that it did, in comparison to all his previous theories, declare someone else guilty and not himself alone. Very nice, he liked that. Now if only there was a way to make himself believe it, that would probably mark a first step out of the circles of self-hatred, drug abuse and general anti-sociality he had been moving inside for god knew how long. Oh well...

Kagome ripped him out of his conspiracy theories and self pity, but he had still managed to subdue his previously good mood a good deal.

"It's ten minutes to seven, if we're lucky she hasn't left to school yet." She declared, looking at her wristwatch.

"Only one way to find out." Inuyasha stepped past her to peer through the iron bars of the gate to the enormous garden.

"And that would be?" Kagome asked, sticking her head between two bars.

"Waiting for her right here." Wonderful. More waiting and sitting around.

"Aww, really, will all of this mission consist of getting beaten up or being chased around on the one hand and spending ours just sitting around with nothing to do on the other?" So she thought about it the same way.

"No. At least about the getting beaten up part. That won't happen again. You should know by now that you best leave that to me."

"Yadda yadda, can one sound any more chauvinist?" She moved closer to lay a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, honey, I'll take on all the bad guys for you. Just stay back and powder your nose, or better yet, cook me steak." She said, obviously trying to sound like some western hero or something. Inuyasha just watched her bewilderedly, unsure whether he should be laughing or feel insulted. How did that girl keep up with her moods if they swung like that? Hadn't she been mad at him or something a few minutes ago? And now she was joking around?

In the end he just peeled her hand from his shoulder and shoved it back at her. Her face dropped but she did not look angry, guilty more like.

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"What for?" Well the joke had been stupid, but-

"For forgetting that you hate to be touched. I'm sorry, didn't do it to offend you or anything I just really forgot."

And so had he, obviously. He hadn't even expected her to remember it, it was true, yeah, but he didn't hate her touch in particular that much, for what ever reasons. Talk about being over considerate. He did not actually expect people to consider what _he_ wanted or felt. At least few people had ever done that, and no-one after knowing him for only a day or so. What a strange girl she was, indeed.

"Whatever." Glancing back into the garden he suddenly saw a figure moving towards the gate. There came his direly needed excuse to ignore the urge to explain himself to Kagome to wipe the guilty expression off her face.

"Hey, look. The shard bitch is coming."

Cornering the wench and taking the shard had been a child's play, she wasn't half as confident alone as she was with her group of humble slaves, at first she did try to threaten him though, with some kind of social outcasting, said she was gonna make sure that he'd be thrown out of his sprinting team and such. Well he couldn't care less about what happened to this body after he left it. She didn't say anything to Kagome, probably thought she was outcast enough just being what she was, and in the end all Inuyasha had to do was snatch the shard and rip it off her neck, she didn't even fight back. They ran away and didn't stop until they found a little park where they sat down on a bench to rest a little.

No.

Getting the shard was no trouble at all, that infuriatingly considerate Kagome was.

All the while they ran she had been awkwardly quiet and now she sat on the bench frowning, and thus not all too far from crying again for all he knew. Just what he fucking needed.

"Stop that!"

She snapped out of whatever was bothering her to shoot him a puzzled look.

"Stop what?"

"What ever you are thinking of, I can hear the wheels in your head turning. Annoys me."

"You know, I was just thinking - "

"I figured that much."

"Will you stop playing impolite and listen?"

What does she mean _playing _impolite?

"So you were _thinking_...?"

"Why are you saying that like you doubt I am capa- oh, don't answer that. Just listen." She fidgeted with the hem of her skirt, not facing him as she spoke. "I don't think it's right to just take over these poor people's body's, wrecking havoc with them and then just leaving their real inhabitants to deal with the consequences. Maybe we can try to right at least some of the wrong that has occurred because of us."

Talk about being over considerate, indeed.

"And just what do you have in mind? How can we possibly make that crazy bitch not hate us, for example, or keep her from doing whatever she plans to to socially stigmatize my counterpart?"

Now she did look up to face him, almost defiantly.

"Well, we could apologize and give her something to replace the necklace we took. And I could try making up with my supposed 'girlfriend' just as you can do that with your counterpart's friend you scared off so rudely."

Inuyasha felt his jaw drop. That girl was incredible. Just what did she think people were like? Forgiving? Understanding? Even the slightest bit willing and able to identify with another person? Good lord! It would have been almost cute, that attitude, hadn't he known how badly she would be disappointed as soon as she found out what things were really like. And why did she give a shit about those fuckers anyway?

But she was determined now, standing up and continuing to argue with her hands on her hips.

"I know you'll say that you don't care, but _I_ do. And as far as I know they won't get us out of this dimension until I linked my self with the jewel so they can extract it with us. I just won't do that until we at least tried to sort things out."

Oh the nerve of that brat. But she'd said '_try_ to sort things out', he'd just hold her to that. And it wasn't like he had much of a choice. He couldn't possibly let her go alone, who knew what kind of trouble she'd get herself into. No protecting the bitch, no reward. It was as simple as that. But he could at least play a little hard to get before he agreed.

"As far as I remember _you_ were the one who's been bitching about the whole running around. And now you're willingly getting yourself into even more of it?"

"Yes I am. -"

Realising she was about to say something like 'and I'll be going now, with you or without you' he hastily stood.

"Ok, ok. But no more bitching or anything."

Because, really, he had never, even when he was like just now, just contradicting someone for the hell of it, been able to agree anymore as soon as someone had said something like that. Inuyasha had always prided himself with his scratches of self respect that occurred every once in a seldom while, especially in situations where they just got in the way. Hell, everyone needed _something_ to be proud of, right?

No more bitching for her did of course not mean no more bitching for him.

"Well then oh little Mother Therese in spe, what do you suggest we do?"

"Who is 'Mother Therese in spe'?"

Ah yes, she probably wasn't that famous in Japan.

"Doesn't matter. Let's get going!"

And off they went.

"I am just neutrally recapitulating the facts here, woman, not commenting, K?" Inuyasha looked at Kagome in a way that he hoped did not look like he was making fun of her. He leaned back against a piece of wall besides the entrance to another mall.

"Yesterday, when you realized that I shoplifted some items of little worth you were quite miffed, I dare say appalled. Don't try denying it, I'm not blind. I saw the look on your face, all that kept you from lecturing me was that we had to run away immediately, and that I brought you chocolate, I guess. I also remember _you_ insisting on the whole sociality concept. Now tell me how this fits in: In order to compensate that infuriating, obviously spoiled bitch for the loss of her necklace you want me to go in there and steal jewellery worth a lot more than what I took yesterday, including the backpack." He leant forward his eyebrows raised. "What the fuck is going on inside your head?"

Kagome had listened, her face darkening with every word he spoke.

"Look I am not _asking_ you to do this because I give a damn about that girl. I'm afraid that our counterparts will have hell to pay for what _we _did. I told you that already. I've been a student myself until – point is, I saw myself how organised mobbing breaks people, and I think that's just what's going to happen, at least to your counterpart. Don't you feel at least a little responsible?" When he opened his mouth she interrupted. "No, don't answer that. I know stealing is immoral, but I don't have any money, nor do you. So what choice do we have? At least we are not robbing a small jeweller or anything, I think a chain this large will not go bankrupt if you just take some nice piece of not too cheap costume jewellery."

"That's the first step to becoming a full time criminal, or a kleptomaniac. Telling yourself that taking this and that won't do any harm. I started like that, too." Inuyasha explained, but he had a feeling that he still sounded like he was making fun of her. By the way she bit her lip to keep from yelling at him he'd say that she had that feeling, too. But suddenly her fists unclenched and her expression changed. She averted her glare, exhausted and... sad? Uh-oh.

"Inuyasha. I wouldn't be asking you to do something like that if I didn't think it was necessary – no imperative. Really, I'd feel guilty for the rest of my li- existence if we didn't try at least."

Guilt. So that was what she was about. At least she wasn't as absolutely selfless as he'd feared she was.

She faced him again, with dangerously moist eyes.

"Do you really, absolutely not care what happens to your counterpart? Wouldn't you feel guilty for screwing up his life?"

Of course he would. But he felt guilty all the time, for existing mainly. Guilt was such a constant in his conscience that a new bit wouldn't really make any difference.

Kagome on the other hand seemed to have lead a guilt free life. No surprise really, what harm could she possibly have done anyone?

Taking in the menacing shimmer of her eyes and her crushed composure he was already about to reveal that he _considered_ doing it at least, when she pressed the last of his buttons.

"I'd do it myself but I know I can't. Only you can, you know that. Please... ?"

Oh, to hell with it.

"Alright, alright, I'll do it. Just so you'll stop bothering me."

He pushed himself off the wall only to be pushed into it again when Kagome squealed "Thank you! I really don't know what I'd do without you!" and hugged him. Then she all but jumped away from him again mumbling: "I'm sorry, I forgot again."

But Inuyasha was still a little too dazed to respond. The kinds of touches he received usually were rather limited, varying from the punches, kicks and slaps delivered during the various fights he seemed to attract so much to those delivered during some illegally inspired sexual abandon. All in all, anyone touching him did it to get some kind of pleasure out of it for themselves, in one way or another, more or less uncaring what he thought of it. So someone touching him just to say 'thank you' came as a little bit of a surprise.  
When he realised just why Kagome had let go of him, he just nodded and hastily entered the mall to avoid having to admit anything to her again.

There were few people inside the mall, which was not so good for obvious reasons. He spotted an area where they sold jewellery and watches and stuff, but it was all locked up inside display cases.

"May I help you?"

Inuyasha turned around ... and looked down to find a ridiculously small, elderly sales clerk smiling up at him. He was about to shake his head in negation when he realised that he could just as well ask him instead of continuing to run around aimlessly. So he nodded.

"I'm looking for a necklace or something."

"For your girlfriend out there?" the man asked mischievously, nodding at something behind Inuyasha. Who turned and saw Kagome standing outside leaned against a street light.

"No - I mean yes but she's not my girlfriend."

"But you'd like her to be that." the man stated smiling knowingly.

"Yeah, riiight– No! Just show me where to find the goddamn necklaces!"

The man lifted his arms. "No need to get so defensive, boy. Now what exactly did you have in mind? Something really classy or more juvenile?"

The fuck? "Well, something I can afford, most of all."

"Oh, I see. The more... trendy jewellery you can find on the third floor. Follow me."

Finally! "No that's okay, don't bother." And off he sneaked.

'What a strange man..' he thought as he rode the elevator. Why did all kinds of people take such interest in his personal life now that he was dead? Nobody had ever given a damn about him as long as he'd been alive and Inuyasha had been more that comfortable with that. Phew...

He exited the elevator and had no trouble finding what he was looking for this time. Well at least he had no trouble finding the jewellery... but choosing a necklace was a whole other story. They had all kinds of necklaces here, some where glittery and large, some were small and simple, some where of a weird pseudo ethno style. But how was he supposed to know what that bitch would like as a replacement for the shard? Worse even, according to Kagome's oh so brilliant he was supposed pretend that his counterpart Keichii was in love with that bitch and had taken the necklace with the shard in an act of jealous rage, believing it was the present of an admirer. So the necklace had to be something that a boy would most likely give a girl he was in love with. How on earth was he supposed to know anything about stuff like that?

In the end he just decided to take one that he liked and would like a girl to wear. He assumed that was basically the same.

He had, as soon as he'd stepped out of the elevator, spotted quite a few cameras and thus was forced to choose a slightly more subtle course of action than his usual 'take what you can get and put it into someone else's bag' approach. He took two of the necklace he intended to loot and walked around the shop a little, pretending to be looking for something else while he actually was looking for an opportunity to stuff one of the necklaces into his pocket.

That opportunity came when he sat down, pretending to be trying on a pair of shoes and thus was out of camera range. He was pretty sure anyway, that whoever was supposed to supervise the mall was watching football on the supervision screens or something but it was still better to be careful. He put one of the necklaces away and then returned to the display stands he'd taken them from and returned the one he still carried around openly.

Everything went smooth as silk, he only got a little anxious when the sales clerk from before asked him whether he'd found what he'd been looking for but he just pretended that everything had been a lot more expensive than he expected. The cheaper jewellery wasn't electronically secured and he was able to reunite with Kagome in front of the mall without the alarm going off or anything. To complete his play he gestured apologetically when he reached her though all he really told her was to hurry up.

Kagome's watch claimed that they had another two hours to kill until they had to be back at the school to intercept the bitch a second time, but they went there anyway, devoid of anything better to do. Besides that Kagome was still determined to make up with her 'girlfriend' before she left. However a bad liar like herself thought she'd be able to do so was beyond him but oh well, not like he cared, she'd said they had to _try _not to _succeed_ righting what they'd done wrong. He only hoped she'd forgotten that she also wanted him to make up with that annoy boy she seemed to believe he had hurt when he'd told him to fuck off. But knowing her...

They arrived, thanks to Inuyasha's most precise sense of orientation, just in time for second break.

Kagome took an enthusiastic breath. "Well then, do you want to split up, or do this together?"

He thought about that. Splitting up meant that he could just pretend that he tried and failed without having to actually do a thing, but doing things together meant that he would come to witness another of Kagome's hilariously futile attempts at lying... the moments of his life where he had fun were more than rare, he evaluated, and it wasn't like facing that bitch again couldn't possibly do him any harm anymore, so:

"I'd rather we do this together."

"Fine I was about to suggest that." That enthusiastic breath again, coupled with an enthusiastic smile. Where did that girl take all that optimism from? _Incroyable_.

They, well Kagome, decided that they'd first try to find her girlfriend and do what they could to save their relationship. She avoided all of his questions about how she planed to proceed with a blush and change of themes and Inuyasha had the vague idea that she had no idea at all and planned to improvise. Just as well, more fun for him! He spotted the temperamental bitch of a girlfriend in the cafeteria and pointed her out to Kagome. She told him to stay back, reminding him of the girl's rather fierce reaction to him the other day, and stomped off. As Inuyasha watched her retreating back he suddenly realised that she didn't even know her girlfriend's name. What on earth was she planning to do? He stealthily approached the table and sat down at one close to it just in time to see Kagome positioning herself in front of the girl. She didn't look up from her plate.

"I'm sorry." Kagome said with a small voice.

The girl ignored her.

"I still love you and I'm terribly sorry." Kagome raised her voice a little. She was blushing wickedly but otherwise she was doing surprisingly well.

But the girl kept on eating.

"I love you, I'm sorry and I'd do anything to make you forgive me."

The girl took a sip of her juice.

Kagome sat down beside her, straddling the bench.

"Forgive me, please! I can't live without you!"

She was really getting into it, apparently, Inuyasha observed a little disappointedly. That was no fun! But the girl still showed no reaction to the sappiness Kagome threw at her. She seemed to realise that too, because she got that exhausted and hopeless expression again.

'Maybe she's just gonna give up' he mused and turned to nick a few fries off a half empty, deserted plate on the table.

But he couldn't have been further from the truth her realised when he turned around again.

Kagome was gripping the girl by her shoulders and turning her to face her - 'Oh no she isn't- ' and kissed her. A full fledged, mouth to mouth kiss.

Inuyasha dropped the fries he'd been about to munch.

Suddenly Kagome broke the kiss, stood, turned and ran out of the room.

Whether that was part of her devious plan or just a natural reaction Inuyasha could only guess as he made his way into a random direction that wasn't the one Kagome had fled to. He really had no intention of making the banshee suspect any connection between him and Kagome again. After a few minutes of sneaky edging towards the exit he reached the door and found a heavily breathing Kagome stumbling out of the toilet.As soon as she spotted him she stomped over and grabbed his arm, pulling him down the corridor.

"You know -" he started.

"Shut up!" Kagome huffed, probably blushing if the colour of her ears offered any indication.

"No, I just - "

"I don't want to hear a thing!"

"Really, I -"

"Do I have to spell it for you?"

"Woman, I'm just trying to tell you that I liked your plan."

She came to a halt at a random corner, spinning around to face him and oh yeah, _blush_ she did.

"You what?"

"I thought that it was a surprisingly good idea. That's all. Whether it was all that efficient could be argued but I still liked it. I wasn't going to go into detail about how you just kissed a- "

"Shut up!"

"Dear god, what's with the homophobia?" Inuyasha snickered.

"I'm not homophobic, it's just that thatwasmyfirstkissandIlostitosomeoneIdon'tevenknowthenameof. "

"Huh?" Inuyasha asked, though he'd understood perfectly well what she was on about. How... innocent... of her. She was what? 15 or something?

"Nevermind."

"Yeah whatever. But still, what were you doing in the lady's room? I take it you weren't puking?"

"No, I was rinsing my mouth - "

"Homophobia, like I said."

"Gods no! She'd eaten peas! I hate peas, is all."

"Oh, ok." Inuyasha decided do let the subject drop so that Kagome had a fair chance at normalising the colour of her face and glanced around. "So what do we do next? Find my 'pal' or – Wait!" He spun around again. "If you know that she's eaten peas then-"

"Shut up!"

"You mean you... ?"

"I don't want to hear a thing!"

"You really-"

"Do I have to spell it for you?"

"No, that's ok, I'll do it: F- R - E - N - C - H K - I - S -"

"Oh please, what's so damn interesting about it?"

And thus he had once again manoeuvred himself into a situation where he owed her an explanation he was more than reluctant to give. Why soil her innocent mind with his male, immature girl-on-girl fantasies?

But for the second time that day coincidence became convenience as the ominous pal of his counterpart's, the annoy boy, chose that very moment to come toddling down the corridor.

"Fuck, woman, there he is! Do you have a plan for me, too?"

"Well actually -"

Inuyasha glared at her sternly. "I'm not going to - "

"Shut up! I wasn't going to say that. I don't know about male friendships, you're the guy here. Just improvise or something! It can't be _impossible_ for you to be nice for once!"

Well, he was male but that was already as far as it got. Male friendships? As in ' Grown up together and spent early puberty jacking off together to lingerie ads' male friendship? How was he supposed to know a thing about that shit? But the annoy boy left him no time to ponder.

"Keichii, there you are! You weren't there for calculus and literature, I already thought that crazy chick kil – Oh, hi!" He bleached visibly when he noticed Kagome standing besides Inuyasha a. k. a. Keichii. But Kagome smiled (which did not quite have a reassuring effect, even if she hoped it did) and grabbed Inuyasha's hand, shaking it.

"Well thank you again, for offering to _tutor_ me. I really don't know what I'd be doing without you!" And off she went, around the corner and hopefully not too far away.

Inuyasha assumed that this was supposed to be some sort of help for him to make up a story why he'd behaved the way he had the day before, but what on earth – Oh! _Tutoring._ Where did she get all those ideas from all of a sudden? Wasn't she supposed to be a bad liar?

"So you're tutoring the rambo chick? That's... nice of you. But also slightly suicidal, if I may say so." The annoy boy smiled a little bewilderedly, then his eyes widened. "Fuck, what's happened to your face? Is that how she 'convinced you to tutor her? You look awful!"

Ah yes. He'd been hurt in that fight yesterday. He hadn't taken a look at his face yet, but it hurt when he touched his cheek and his lip had felt a little thick all day. He probably looked like he'd been beaten up. Well, that was basically what had transpired, just that he'd been the one doing the main beating.

"No that wasn't her, that happened later. She came up to me and said she wanted to talk to me at the beginning of lunchbreak yesterday. That's why I left training all of a sudden you know. . She hadn't said a word about what it was she wanted and I thought she was gonna beat me up if I didn't come, but I didn't want any of you to know about it." Hey, making up this stuff was rather easy once you were into it. "Then I'd go meet her, that close from pissing my pants, and all she wanted was for me to tutor her. Really. But she's paying well, so who am I to complain? "

"But why were you so angry yesterday? I mean you all but told me to fuck off!"

"Like I said, I thought she wanted to beat me up or anything, I didn't want you to be pulled into whatever shit I thought she was planning, so I tried to scare you off."

"But who beat you up if it wasn't her then?"

Ehem. That was a good question. But then an idea struck.

"It don't matter." He avoided his buddy's eyes in a way he hoped looked ashamed.

The boy fell for it. "Aww come on, man. You know you can tell me, we've been friends for like - what? Twelve years or something?" He moved closer and laid a hand on Inuyasha's shoulder.

Riight. Inuyasha cringed and fought the urge to tell the boy to fuck off again. It was scary how right he'd been about the kind of male relationship he was dealing with here. Which proved once again that you didn't have to be an active participant in social life to understand it's workings. Just what he'd always told himself.

He looked up again. "t'was her friggin' girlfriend." he said silently.

"What?" The annoy boy retreated his hand.

"The rambo chick's girlfriend. I've never met someone as paranoidly jealous as that girl. She'd punched me right into my face before I even knew what was going on. You think the other one is dangerous?" He laughed bitterly. That was something he was always able to do convincingly, awful actor or not. "At least with her you can _see_ she's able to knock you out with one blow. The not rambo one is actually kind of cute." He shuddered. "At least I thought so before."

"You mean a girl did this to you?"

"Damn right!"

The annoy boy burst out laughing. Inuyasha felt himself get angry although the boy was laughing his ass off about something that hadn't even really happened. This was why he hated acting. He just never managed to maintain a certain emotional distance to his roles. Scratch that. Most of the time he totally lost it about what was real and what not.

"Haha. Veeery funny. What could I possibly have done? Hit her back? A girl? No thanks, I haven't stooped that low yet."

The boy stopped laughing. "I know, Keichii, I'm sorry. It's just that... a girl?"

Whatever. Inuyasha had enough of it. Now for a smooth exit:

"Look buddy, It's ok, I guess I would have found it just as hilarious if you'd been beaten up by that chick. But now I'll just have to find my rambo student again, she forgot to give me my book back. See ya 'round!"

And with a grin he hoped looked honest and buddy-like he went looking for Kagome.

He found her, after some wandering and wondering around, under the tree they had first met under, where she was waiting for him.

She saw him approaching and waved. "Did everything go alright?"

"Yeah, sure. No problem."

He sat down beside her. " I'd say we take care of the shard bitch later on and use the spare time to eat and rest a little."

She smiled. Why did she do that all of the time?

"I was just going to suggest that."

They shared the rest of the bread with cheese, emptied the remaining bottle of water and then fell into content silence as they stretched out in the patchy shadow of the tree. Kagome even dozed off after a short while and Inuyasha entertained himself with a little mathematics, geometry today, all the while the day stretched lazily under the warm, late spring sun. To his discomfort, Inuyasha couldn't quite shake a feeling of peacefulness, although he usually strictly forbade himself to be lured into an emotional illusion of that kind, and so he wasn't too disappointed when he heard the bell ring for the third and final time. Feelings of peace, contentment and belonging were dangerous, at least for him.

Kagome was still a little dizzy when he urged her to go and hide somewhere while he was going to face the ex shard bitch and make her believe he was in love with her. The twisted shit he had to deal with on a daily basis! ...since about yesterday, but still.

Before he'd been able to come up with any decent idea on how to approach her she emerged from the main building surrounded by her usual circle of fan girls, though it appeared to be smaller than yesterday. Inuyasha waited until she was close enough, stepped out of the shadow of the gate and blocked her way, about the same moment as he realised that he didn't even know her name. Now that might complicate things a little...

But gladly the girl was still pissed off enough so that she spoke to him before he'd even finished worrying.

"What do you want?"

"I need to talk to you – alone."

She laughed hysterically. "Yeah, sure!"

"No seriously. I need to tell you something."

"I don't think there's anything to tell. Unless you want to beg my forgiveness, but then I can tell you: there's no way to stop me from punishing you the way you deserve! You brought that upon yourself on your own!"

He took a few steps forward until he stood right in front of her. She didn't even flinch, with her peers she obviously felt safe. "I really need you to come with me." he said in a low voice. Acting had, much like everything else except screwing up, never been his strength and so he just hoped that she'd mistake his disgust for anxiety or embarrassment.

"No. Now if you'll excuse us..." She tried to sidestep him but Inuyasha, realising that words were once again failing him, grabbed her arm and pulled her along as he hurried through the gate. She struggled, but in vain, and stopped miraculously as soon as her friends were out of sight. Looking for an appropriate endroit for his 'confession' he yanked her down the street. The school was situated rather suburbial and there was a little park close by, he decided to go there.

He told the girl, who was now obediently following him, to sit down on a bench. He positioned himself in front of her and was about to drop some horribly sappy line when she suddenly stood and threw herself onto him. Holy shit! What to do now, he couldn't throw her off and then still claim that he loved her! Damn Kagome and her screwed up plans! Who would have thought that she'd still dare attacking – wait! It wasn't until then that he became aware of the nature of her 'attack', alerted by her frantic whispers. Surely you didn't continuously whisper the name of a person you intended to harm? But there she was, all "Keichii, Keichii... "

Right. Now either that was going to make things real easy or complicate everything even more. He'd have to give it a try. He grabbed her by her shoulders ad pried her off him, but took care to keep her close. She was blushing deeply and her eyes were all dewy.

"What is this all about?" She flinched at his rather harsh tone but kept up the dewiness.

"What do you mean?" She rasped.

"I thought you hated me, you said... " he tried to look hurt and confused... well he _was_ confused.

"Oh Keichii!" She took a step back. "At first, I did, but then, that was all for show, I have an image to maintain after all. But what I said couldn't have been farther from the truth! Keichii, you won't believe me, but you are the first man to dare to defy me in _years_! All this power I had, I practically reigned the whole school. _Everyone _was constantly trying to get on my good side, all those lowlife asslickers! And then you come along, all rude -" she came closer again. " - and brutish - " she dragged her hands up his chest, but he stayed oddly unmoved by it... well it tickled a little... " - and oh so manly! " She pressed herself against him and almost purred. "Oh Keichii! I need you! All those wimps can go to hell for all I care as long as you... "

Fuck, that bitch was screwed up! Just how weird could one be? Falling for someone because they treated her wrong! ... then again, that's what everyone said about women, they always fell for the assholes... well anyway that sure would make things easy- he would even get to keep the necklace! ... not that he wanted it, but still...

She suddenly detached herself from him again. "Though I still have absolutely no idea why you suddenly decided to take my necklace- "

That was his keyword! Inuyasha gathered all of his measly acting abilities to deliver a more or less believable 'Jealous rage'. Well, at least yelling, insulting and overall ill-tempered-ness didn't require as much pretence as 'teenager in love' did. It wasn't that hard playing an asshole when you were one. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

"You don't know, you say? Keh! Think again, you whore! What son of a bitch of a scumbag gave that trash to you? Who was stupid and suicidal enough to dare lay such claim on you when he should have known what everyone knows, that you're _mine_ and mine alone! And what where you doing accepting it, anyway?" He shoved her away. This was fun! And she'd probably like him even more after it!

"Why am I even putting up with an infidel, spoiled and worthless bitch like you?" He turned and attempted to walk away. The girl immediately shot forward and hurled him around again, then.. dropped to her knees? Fuckit, that amount of dévoument surely wasn't all too far from an unhealthy obsession? Not that he minded women throwing himself at his feet, but still.

She all but cried. "Oh no, please, don't go! I swear, I had no idea that you held such interest in me! Had I known I would never ever have worn that necklace, even though no one else gave it to me! I found the stone and had an necklace made out of it, you have to believe me! I haven't lain my eyes on any other man in _years_!" She grabbed his knees. "Please forgive my thoughtlessness! I beg you!"

Holy shit this was ridiculous! Had that girl ever considered Valium? But still, all the better for him, he didn't need to explain himself to her, or, more like, invent a plausible explanation. Obviously, to her his aggressive and irrational behaviour didn't appear very much out if the ordinary, she was just as fucked up mentally, after all.

Well nevermind. He grabbed her by her shoulders and lifted her to her feet, all the while staring into her eyes with what he hoped looked like a conflicted expression. Then he attempted to smile.

"I might."

"You might..?"

"I might forgive you."

She threw herself into his arms again.

"Oh thank you!"

"But..."

She pressed herself closer. "But?"

"But you'll have to prove your worthiness to me." he smirked.

She looked at him with those insanely dewy eyes and whispered: "Anything. I'll do anything for you."

The bitch then started rubbing herself against him. Inuyasha also suddenly realised that she was actually kind of pretty... she'd just gotten on his nerves that much before that he hadn't been willing to waste some of his precious brain capacity on processing it. But she was pretty, in a plain kind of way by her looks and in a sledgehammer kind of way by her advances. One of the many disadvantages of low self esteem was that it made you so downright dumb and spineless as soon as someone made you feel wanted. At least Inuyasha told himself that afterwards to make himself feel better about what he did next...

_Anything_...

A.N.: Well, that's it. Woohoo, a cliffie!.. a small one, but still...

I am, when am I not, terribly sorry it took me so long to write this but despite the fact that I have so little imagination that writing for me is like writing on a constant writer's block ('s true, I swear) I was also sick and in London, and got sick again after I returned from over there. I wrote the last part of this chapter (as well as this AN.) on a fever (which might explain their weirdness, maybe) ...Excuses excuses, I know, I am also the carnation of laziness.

Well there are some (3) French expressions Inuyasha uses in this chapître (there, there another one), and if it's not completely clear from the context already, in which case I hope you'll excuse my underestimating you, this is what they mean:

'incroyable' means unbelievable

'endroit' is place or setting

'dévoument' means a lot of things but here it's the act of submitting to someone, or the state of being submissive. (is there a noun for this in English?)

Oh, and I do know that the word 'homophobia' does not actually apply to persons who are afraid of homosexuality but who are generally afraid of what's similar to them, i.e. their own gender, which may include the sexual aspect, but the word is reduced to that context in every day language as far as I know, so I thought it was ok. And I still do.

I went to work on the next chapter immediately, and I'll hurry up with it, I promise. (Does anyone even care? )


	7. Beatings and around the bush

**A parallel dimensional fairytale  
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Chapter 5

Beatings and around the bush.  
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Disclaimer: I'll admit it is highly tempting to claim that you own Inuyasha ... but imagine yourself being in Rumiko Takahashi's position: She holds the key to either heavenly bliss or endless damnation of an estimated, I don't know, billion Inuyasha maniacs in her hands, depending on how she ends the series... really it's no wonder she keeps it running and running, if I were her I'd probably have broken down under that pressure long ago. shudders So I am actually kinda glad I don't own him.

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As unpleasant as voyaging into her counterpart's conscience had been, leaving it again was a wonderful feeling, comparable only to... well she didn't really have anything to compare it to, but it sure felt good. Kagome remarked with curiosity how her vision slowly dulled until she could hardly make out Inuyasha anymore, although he stood right in front of her.

That jerk. Whatever he had been doing, he'd spent an awful lot of time on convincing that girl not to punish his counterpart, but when she'd just begun to worry he'd sneaked up on her, startled her, and had given the necklace to her. Very suspicious, but he'd sworn that things were settled between Keichii and the girl and she just hoped she could believe him.

It'd also taken her an awful lot of time figuring out what exactly she was supposed to do with the shard to bind it to her, and Inuyasha did in no way help, with his constant "You done yet, woman?" and "Can't be that fucking hard, now, can it?" and the likes. How could anyone possibly be that impatient? She'd been _this_ short from snapping and shoving the shard down his throat when suddenly the constant tingling due to the nearness of the shard had intensified and she'd with a very ceremonial "Come on you stupid thing just connect with me, damnit!" managed to seal the fusion. The shard had lifted itself from her hands and had flown to her chest where it merged with her flesh about there where her collarbones met. She'd found it slightly unsettling, but Inuyasha had stared fascinatedly.

She had almost immediately begun to feel her soul detach itself from the body after that.

Half expecting to appear inside that nothingness room again she was surprised as her soul manifested right in front of Miroku and, sitting in an armchair again, Sango. The room was a different one though, it wasn't even an actual room she realised, but more like the remains of one, she was standing in the middle of a small, ancient Greek looking, ruin. Sango's armchair wasn't an actual armchair either, it was a throne, standing in between to pillars up a few stairs. Also she was wearing a white robe like an ancient Greek goddess and not the Kimono from before whereas Miroku was still clad into the same purple and black dress she'd gotten to know him in. He smiled when he saw her.

"Ah, Kagome, I'm delighted to see you again." He held the same gilded staff in his hands he'd used before, when he'd sent them into the first dimension. When she'd asked why Sango wasn't the one working the magic he'd explained that SHE'd 'bestowed the power to absolve such simple tasks on him to spare her the energy she so desperately needs to hold the more and more destabilising universe together'. _"In short " _Sango had interrupted him _"He's helping me lessening my migraine." _

"Hya." Said deity greeted with an indifferent motion of her hand.

"Hello." Kagome answered and tried to take a step forwards, but her knees wobbled.

Miroku nodded friendlily. "Give your soul some time to recollect itself in the way it remembers to be before you move around. You don't want to get hurt."

What a weird bunch those two were. Sango appeared so demotivated and bored it was hard to believe she really was the creator of all life, (and where gods supposed to suffer from chronic headaches?) and Miroku was just so a little too cheerful. Besides, what was he doing here anyway? He'd said he was dead, just like Inuyasha and her, so why wasn't his soul being reborn? From what he'd told them back in the soul store room he'd been spending centuries here in this interdimension. Kagome was about to just be blunt and ask him when Inuyasha began to appear left to her.

The scowl on his face probably indicated that however her counterpart had reacted to regaining her mind and body right in front of a member of the gender she so entirely loathed, if what her girlfriend said was true, she seemed to have taken it out on him. But Kagome would rather have gone and pinch Sango's nose than ask him, although SHE claimed to be an almighty goddess that could probably just wipe her out for such a lack of respect. 'No way.' she thought as his image lost its last flickers and blurry patches. His eyes were screaming murder.

But even though he really wasn't that much of a happy bunny at the moment a part of her squealed when his ears flicked towards her and then towards the two other occupants of the ruin, followed by his eyes as he once again scanned the area. 'Cute.' Someone said inside her head but Kagome officially begged to differ. Tsk.

"How wonderful to see you both reassembled here safe and sound." Miroku now officially greeted them. "And my congratulations, you solved your first task with expertise. SHE is highly content." Sango gave a nod. Miroku continued. "Kagome, you were doing great for a miko with no experience at all, which proves what immense power your soul must contain, and you Inuyasha - " To her surprise Kagome heard Inuyasha growl. But Miroku seemed oblivious to the hanyou's obvious anger. "Good job." he finished.

Sango lifted herself from her throne. "Yeah, right, seeing as you've done so well I'd say we loose no time getting you into the next dimension."

"Absolutely, my dear mistress," Miroku agreed.

'Those two' it occurred to Kagome all of a sudden "could they possibly...?"

But the goddesses servant, or of whatever kind his relationship with her was, ripped her out of her wondering immediately. "Though, as the next dimension, much like all of the remaining eleven, differs greatly from yours and the one you just visited, I will have to tell you a little bit about it's workings before you enter."

Sango joined them at the bottom of the stairs.

"Take a seat."

And within the blink of an eye the scenery around them changed into that of a futuristic looking, well, room, with a round table and four chairs around it. Inuyasha went into what Kagome secretly called 'rabbit mode' again, because the way he frantically glanced around, especially now, with his ears accompanying his eyes, he reminded her of the way rabbits composed themselves all of the time.

'He's really constantly on the edge.' she mused.

They sat down around the table and Miroku hit a few buttons on a control panel in front of him. The lights went out and something like a 3D hologram flared into life in the middle of the table.

Kagome sighed and decided to just stop wondering for now and listen to whatever he had to say, as did Inuyasha. She'd just ask about the room shifting another time.

The hologram showed a globe.

"This is a simplified model of the dimension that is your next destination. As you can see - " The globe began to rotate slightly. "The continental shapes are basically the same, but the whole planet is still mainly covered with forest and other wilderness, civilisation has not progressed as far as it has in your dimension at this point of time. The technological standard could be compared to that of the early European Middle Ages, they have ploughs, but no winter crop. The main difference though, lies in the population." The image faded as Miroku hit another button. He elaborated: "The fauna contains of animals that are roughly the same as those you both are used to on the one hand, but there are about as many represents of the youkai subspecies, youkai whose animal heritage overweights any other influence on the other hand. Well, seeing as you, Inuyasha, know how to deal with those I dare say that they will not pose that much of a problem." Inuyasha kehed.

"The most significant difference of all you will find with the humanoid population." Another button, another hologram. Four persons, two men and two women, but the couples differed quite remarkably in height rotated slowly. "The humanoid population is divided into two subspecies that are best described as... well, giants and dwarfs. The one species, who, in the region where the Shikon no Kakera is situated, call themselves Kerumna, averagely reaches but a height of around five feet and is of a rather sturdy built -" He indicated the smaller of the couples, "Whereas the other species, who runs by the name of Moasi Terna has never brought forth offspring that did not grow to a measure of around eight or nine feet, and is characterized by slender limbs.

You see, the differences between each of the species do not make them what I would call incompatible, but their relation is hardly amicable. What the Kerumna are lacking in height is compensated by their sheer number, which outmatches that of the reluctantly reproducing giants by far, the Moasi Terna on the other hand are not only taller but also physically stronger in a way that contradicts their fragile built.

In short, both fear the other, and humanoids were never known to cope very well with their fears." The image faded and the lights went on again slowly.

"As far as we know the shard is currently the most prized possession of a grand spider youkai living in a ruin situated in a forest that marks the boundary between Kerumna and Moasi Terna territory. Your counterparts are both living in an Kerumna village at the outskirts of the forest. With your ability to sense the Shikon no Tama, Kagome, you should have no trouble finding the ruin."

"So if I got that right I'll be fighting a giant spider youkai over it's precious with the body of a dwarf? Are you kidding me?" Inuyasha's gaze switched from Sango to Miroku and from bewilderment to anger. "Like that wimpy body I had in the last dimension wasn't useless enough!"

"Inuyasha, I can assure you, were SHE to assume that you are simply not able to fend for both of you in that dimension SHE wouldn't be sending you in. You were specifically chosen for Kagome's protection and of course SHE also made sure that each of your counterparts offers a body fit for that task. SHE would have simply chosen another soul had yours been inadequate in that way."

That seemed to calm him somewhat. "But still, a fucking dwarf?"

Miroku smiled conspiratorially. "Well, I never actually said that your counterpart was a dwarf, did I?"

"Whatever." Inuyasha leaned back in his chair

"Am I going to be a dwarf?" Kagome heard herself ask. She really wasn't too keen on being that small either.

"Yes." Miroku nodded.

"Aww."

"Keh!"

"What's that supposed to mean – Keh?" was he making fun of her again?

"You're a midget anyway, what's the big deal? You'd be what – ten or fifteen centimetres smaller?" He was, that jerk. And there she'd thought there was something like a peace agreement going on between them. He _had _ behaved somewhat social on the second day in the dimension. Well, he asked for pointless bickering, he sure as hell was gonna get it!

"Who are you calling a midget? At least I'm not in constant danger of hitting my head somewhere. By the looks of it, I'd say that's happened to you one too many times!"

He stood, bracing his one hand on the table as he glared down at her.

"At least I'm not sticking my nose where it doesn't belong all of the time!"

What was that supposed to – Ooh the nerve of him! _He_ had been the one to tell her about himself _voluntarily_!She, too, stood and glared up at him defiantly.

"At least I'm no screwed up alcoholic!"

Inuyasha cringed. Touché. Though she felt bad about having said that immediately. Then he got that scary look about his eyes again.

"At least I'm no fucked up, delusional, hypocrite _bitch, _who is abusing her counterpart's body to live out her pent up homosexual fantasies!"

'What's he thinking? That I _liked _loosing my first kiss to a stranger, girl or not?' Kagome wanted to claw his eyes out. Wait! What was holding her back? She launched herself at him.

She was so furious, she couldn't even really tell why. What he said was rude, and she knew he said it just to hurt her, but that was only part of it. Maybe she was most of all mad at him because she just couldn't figure him out. One second he was so... calm, almost soft and she found it hard not to like him and the next he was the carnation of ill temper and anger management weaknesses and she found it hard not to despise him.

Just as she reached up to yank at one of his ears and he moved to prevent her from doing it a voice suddenly stopped them dead in their tracks.

"STOP IT THIS INSTANT!" They whirled around to the source, Sango, to find her glaring at them with such a furious heat Kagome thought she saw actual flames burning around her like an overzealous halo. Miroku had his head leaned against the table and was shaking with uncontrolled laughter.

Sango never left her chair but Kagome still felt overwhelmed by her presence, like either she was shrinking or Sango was growing. And Inuyasha wasn't all that better off, a quick side glance confirmed, he looked like he wanted to find out how far his head could retreat between his shoulders and she thought she even heard him whimpering.

"IF YOU THINK THAT YOUR CONSTANT QUARRELING IS DOING ANYTHING TO IMPROVE THE STATE OF MY HEAD THAN YOU ARE GRAVELY MISTAKEN! ANOTHER LOUD WORD FROM EITHER OF YOU AND YOU'LL BOTH BE REBORN AS WORMS!"

Miroku peeled his head off the table. "What SHE means, " he explained shuddering with the effort to stop giggling, "is that SHE is able to block out the aggravation of all her souls only as long as they are inside the dimensions. As soon as they enter the interdimension a large emotional outbreak of any kind feels to her like her head - " he made quotation signs with his fingers " - 'is a friggin' coal mine for all the detonations and hammering going on inside there.' So you are asked to keep your temper in check."

"O-ok." Kagome sat down, mainly to hide her shaking knees.

"Keh!" Inuyasha also dropped onto his chair. "'twas her fault anyway." he murmured.

Kagome felt her hackles rising again. "Excuse me?"

"I said it was - "

"SHUT MOTHERFUCKING FUCK UP!" This time Kagome was positive that Sango was surrounded by flames. She even felt the heat on her skin.

"Sango, sweetheart, calm down please." Miroku hurried to her side.

'Those two-' Kagome started again. 'Are they...?'

But Miroku interrupted her – again. "I would say it would be for the best if you went into the next dimension as soon as possible. You know what you need to know now. Just go and find the Shikon no Kakera."

"Ah yes, about that." Kagome suddenly remembered. "What do I do with the one we already have? I mean it's stuck in my body right now, but I can't possibly take it with me, can I?"

"Au contraire, you do. We are going to recollect the shards inside your body, it's free to move as long as it is connected to you. Plus -" He smiled encouragingly. "If you have it with you it'll be a lot easier to locate who or whatever owns the shards inside the dimensions. They'll be attracted by it's power."

He was saying that like it was a good thing. "But isn't it going to attract all other kinds of youkai, too?"

His smile grew. Then he suddenly pulled forth his staff. "I'd say you go in first this time, alright?" She opened her mouth to protest, he'd simply ignored her question, damnit! But her body, or what her soul thought was her body, began to dissolve already. Grand.

Taking over the conscious of her counterpart felt just as terrible as it had the first time but Kagome just shrugged the uneasy feeling off. She was too curious about this new dimension that was said to be oh so different from what she used to know.

The first of her senses to work was her hearing, there were voices all around, and sounds of animals, 'like a market' she thought. Then her nose was assaulted with an overwhelming melange of smells, most of them rather unpleasant. She smelled wood and earth, old sweat and fresh sweat, dust, a stink she recognised from the one time she'd been in a cowshed and mingled in between all of those odours was that of smoke, of burning wood.

The feeling of her body came the same time as her sight did, but she just opened her eyes and was clever enough to remain in the position she found herself in. She was squatted down in the shadow of a small hut that was, she figured as she looked around, part of the village Miroku had been talking about. Ahead of her was a small square, surrounded by huts, and with a well of some kind in the middle. There were quite some people around, but she'd been wrong about the market, most of the people were women fetching water from the well and children running around, playing.

She stood carefully, but the fusion was complete. When she saw how close the ground still was, even though she'd stretched to her full height, she felt like dropping down again. She really _was_ a dwarf! And not only that, she realised as a woman passed her with two buckets of water, she was even small for a dwarf! All that lead to but one conclusion: she was a little dwarf girl. How cute. She sighed. At least the jerk of jerks, Inuyasha, would suffer the same... or would he? Hadn't Miroku said that he was no dwarf? Woohoo! More cunning remarks about her height.

Inuyasha, that was right. How was she supposed to find him? They hadn't had the time to set a place to meet or anything, she didn't even know what he'd look like! All because Miroku had all but thrown them into the new dimension. What to do?

A yell from between the huts on the opposite of the small square ripped her out of her worries.

"There he is hiding! Get him!"

She ran towards the commotion and arrived besides the well just in time to see a figure exiting one of the huts and a small mob of what she assumed were dwarf children, as their faces looked younger than those of the women around, and at least some of them were smaller, storming towards the figure. As said figure, a boy she guessed despite his ruffled long hair, straightened up Kagome gasped. That boy looked awfully young , but was still a good foot or even two taller than anyone around. What made him stand out even more was that his hair was pitch black, whereas everyone else had light hair, varying from from reddish brown – she pulled forth a strand of her own to look at it - , such as herself to very light blonde.

'Is that one of the giants? What's he doing here?'

The giant boy seemed to look for the best way out, then decided and started running across the square. His long and skinny legs all but catapulted him away from his persecutors, and it looked like he'd outrun them with ease. Kagome sighed in relief as he passed right beside her. Whatever he'd done, _if _he'd done anything at all, he was clearly outmatched, and she didn't like unfairnesses like that.

But then suddenly his graceful strides began to falter, he staggered, then stopped. The mob began closing in on him again and Kagome couldn't help but run over, too. 'Run!' she tried to tell him.

But the boy just tensed, turned and – went into 'rabbit mode'!

'Oh no, Inuyasha?'

Kagome sped up. But the mob reached him before her. Without further ado, but with a few inarticulate screams, they hurled themselves at him. He went down under the force of the about twelve children crashing into him, Kagome reckoned that his soul still hadn't completely taken over the body, which of course did in no way make defending himself any easier.

She came to a halt besides the tangle of limbs and muffled screams. She still wasn't completely sure that the giant boy really was Inuyasha's counterpart but there was only one way to find out:

"Inuyasha?" She asked tentatively. But a fist of unknown origin hit the boy's face that moment.

She raised her voice a little." Inuyasha, is that you?"

The boy seemed to perk up as much as his position allowed, but he might just as well have been tensing at another hit.

Kagome decided it was time she did something, whether that boy was Inuyasha or nor, he needed help. Remembering Sango's very efficient technique she took a deep breath.

"STOP IT!"

A few heads shot up at her screaming, and the overall wrestling seemed to slow down a little.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

One of the dwarfs was smart enough to look for the source of the interruption. He stared at her surprisedly for a second then grinned.

"Raine? What's your problem?"

What her problem was? Brat.

"You're hurting him!"

The boy shrugged. "So what? He's filth, he's a freak. What do you care?"

Gah, this was getting her nowhere. She chose the only reasonable course of action: Throwing herself into the tangle and untangling it by force.

"Inuyasha! Is that really you? Come on, let's get rid of those jerks and look for the shard.!"

She kicked the dwarf closest to her in the shin.

"Kagome?" The boy began to rouse but was plummeted by the kids all over again. His lip was bleeding – again. Kagome tried to pry one of the smaller children off him but no avail, she was still even smaller than the smallest of them. Suddenly a hand grabbed her shoulder. 'Not again.' she thought as she was hurled to the ground by the boy she'd spoken to moments ago.

"What's gotten into you, Raine? You feelin' sorry for that scum? Mind your own fucking business!"

But Kagome was far from that. "No, leave him be I say!" She stood and shoved the boy away. " The bunch of you against one that's just unfair!"

She was grabbed and brought to fall again. The boy laughed, a hard snicker. "Unfair? Against that monster? You wanna know what's unfair? That that traitor Moasi whore who gave birth to this freak didn't drown him right away! That's what!"

Kagome was at a loss of words, out of fury and confusion. Was Inuyasha's counterpart some kind of a half dwarf – half giant, something like a hanyou, too?

But before she could ask, or realise that asking maybe wasn't that much of a good idea, pain shot through her side. The boy had kicked her!

"You wanna be a Mosai bitch, too? Is that why you're taking his side?"

Kagome squeaked and clutched her side. That hurt like hell, what on earth had he hit? She felt something warm seeping through the fabric of her robe.

"I'm bleeding?"

"Ooops, sorry. I forgot you just had that accident." the boy snickered with mock guilt. Then, to Kagome's horror, he moved to kick her again. She closed her eyes and curled up to brace herself for the hit.

But it never came. Instead she heard some screams and odd noises, then a cracking sound that was familiar. She opened one eye and was only able to take in a few fallen dwarf youngsters when she was suddenly lifted off the ground and carried away from the square at high speed. She screamed.

"Shut the fuck up woman, I just saved your wimpy hide!"

Looking down than up she realised that Inuyasha was her kidnapper – that is if he really was that giant boy.

"Inuyasha?"

"Who do you think I am?" She felt him tense, then he jumped. She squeaked. Inuyasha sighed.

"If you're gonna continue freaking out with every move I make I'll drop you!"

"Nooo." She reached for something to hold on to but her arms were to short to reach around his torso. She grabbed his arm instead. He had her cradled to his chest and so she glanced around his shoulder to see where they were. Just leaving the village it seemed. She glanced over her own shoulder to see where they were going to. Right into that river ahead of them if Inuyasha didn't change course soon it seemed. Reminding herself not to scream she pulled at his shirt.

"Umm, Inuyashaaaaah!"

He'd simply jumped across the river. When he landed the pain in her side flared up again. She felt a little dizzy but she kept to herself. She wasn't about to let herself be dropped.

Inuyasha sped up even more and stormed towards the forest that lay behind some fields with corn like plants growing on them. After they had entered the forest the pain in her side was suddenly joined by a familiar yet strange new feeling: she could faintly sense a shard.

"Inuyasha!" she yelled excitedly.

"Gah!" He must have been absent or something because she startled him so. He staggered and lost his balance right in the middle of a large jump. She clutched his arm tighter but he didn't drop her. He fell to the ground and rolled over his shoulder, all the while cushioning her with his arms and chest. When he stood again though, he put her down.

"Are you out of your fucking mind, woman?"

But she found it hard to focus on him – in fact it was kind of hard to even remain standing on her feet. She fell onto her behind, black spots dancing before her eyes.

"Fuck! When did that happen!" Inuyasha crouched down in front of her. Gee, he was still awfully tall. He tentatively touched her side. The pain intensified. Kagome looked down to find a dark blossom on her robe. Was that her blood?

"Let me see!" Inuyasha reached out to – open the bindings of her robe?

"Hentai!" She swatted his hand away.

"Jeez, woman, you're hurt! I need to have a look at your wound, damnit!" He opened the rope that was slung around her hip. She scrambled backwards. That pervert! Taking advantage of the fact that she was smaller – wait, taking advantage? Panic surged in her. He grabbed her shoulder with one hand to keep her still, with the other he began to lift the skirt of her one piece robe. She screamed and wiggled.

"Fucking hold still!"

She managed to plant a kick onto his upper arm, but he seemed unfazed by it. Then he grabbed both of her shoulders and stilled her completely. He brought his face to the same level as hers and looked her straight into the eye.

"Kagome." He said in a strained but calm voice. "You are hurt and I'll have to take a look at your wound, you're loosing too much blood. Besides, you have the body of a fucking five year old there is absolutely _nothing_ to see."

The dizziness overwhelmed her again. She glanced down and took in her flat chest and round belly, then the dark spot on her side. She calmed down. He was probably right.

"Ok?"

"Ok."

He helped her stand and pulled the robe over her head, there was a short argument when they both realised that she was wearing absolutely nothing under it, but he and the pain won. The wound proved to be a large cut or gash about the span of a hand, her hand, in length, running from the underside of her rips to her hip. According to Inuyasha it was maybe about a week old, a little less more like, it had been stitched up with a rather thick thread and had healed alright, but reopened when 'that filthy sonofabitch' kicked her. Inuyasha carried her to a small river nearby, all the while she pressed her robe against the wound to still the bleeding and cleansed the cut carefully. Kagome was confused once again at this open display of concern. There was that other side of him, the one she found hard not to like. He bandaged her with is shirt, which was little more than a rag anyway, and it wasn't until he took it off that Kagome realised how awfully skinny his counterpart was. Skinny and covered in scars.

She reached out to touch one on his chest.

"Do you think the dwarfs did that to him?"

He pulled away slightly but didn't stop bandaging her. "Keh!"

She glanced up but he wasn't looking at her. "Keh?"

"Well, what'd it look like back in the village? Like _he_ did that to himself?"

"No, I -"

He glanced down at her and she was taken aback by the raw hurt in his, for the time being, moss green eyes. "Mixed breeds are -" He shook his head and stood abruptly. "There, done." He was finished wrapping her wound. But what has he been about to say?

"It's getting dark and you shouldn't be moving around too much now ."

She looked up to see he was right. The light that seeped through the branches, twigs and leaves had turned pink already.

"So I'd say we go spend the night here and go looking for that damned spider tomorrow."

"Fine by me." Kagome really did not feel like moving around a lot anyway. But that didn't go for her mind. '_Mixed breeds are -_'. She repeated silently as she put on her robe. Was this what his life had been like? She remembered what he'd told her about his age. If he'd grown up around seven hundred years ago in Japan then he probably had been persecuted just like his counterpart was. People of the Middle Ages weren't exactly famous for their tolerance.

'Humanoids were never known to cope very well with their fears' Miroku had said earlier. 'That's true' she thought sadly.

She silently watched Inuyasha's back as he moved around and collected twigs and fallen branches, probably to make a fire. Suddenly he perked up and looked at her.

"What?"

"N-nothing, I was just... wondering whether we'll somehow manage to get something to eat."

As if on cue her stomach started growling that very moment. She hadn't even realised she was hungry until now.

He relaxed. "Yeah, I was going to look for some fish in that river. I guess I can't leave you alone here to go hunting with you smelling of blood like that."

"Are you sure that's possible without a net or something? It's getting darker by the minute."

"I know, I'll just finish making the fire."

He assembled the wood he'd collected to an even pile, with some dry leaves and fine twigs beneath it, then asked for the rope around her hips. Kagome watched in awe as he built a contraption out of the rope, a stick, a stone and a dry piece of bark that Kagome remembered from a picture in one of her history books – in the chapter about prehistoric cultures. It took him quite some minutes, but not half as long as she had anticipated, to really make fire with that thing. He stood and dusted off his hands. Then he turned to her again.

"I couldn't find any flint around here, so I had to improvise." he explained, she really must have been gawking at him.

"Keep an eye on the fire." he strode towards the river.

"Kay." She scooted closer to the fire, unsure what was really asked of her.

"Just blow it or fan it with your hands every once in a while." came another explanation. He really must have been thinking she was stupid or something. But she forgot to be irritated at him or her own ineptness when the fire flared higher and cast it's spell of fearful fascination on her, like it always did, on the rare occasions when she actually encountered an open fire. She stared into the flames as their heat first only brushed her skin, then seemed to seep into her, warming her to the core. She shuddered blissfully. She just loved fire.

She was ripped out of her stupor as two large fish were dropped in front of her.

"Eeeep!" The fish were still wiggling, spraying cold droplets of water onto her warm skin. Inuyasha sat down at the opposite of the fire. He was peeling the bark off of a thin stick.

"Kill them and gut them! I'll make something to roast them on:"

"Eeew, no! I can't kill them! And I don't even have a knife! How am I supposed to gut them?"

Inuyasha sighed. Then he stood, grumbling about spoiled brats and having to do things yourself if you wanted them done properly. Kagome seethed. It wasn't her fault that she hadn't been born into a time where being able to kill and gut a fish with your bare hands was an obligatory skill!

She pointed that out to Inuyasha as he took the fish and sat down again.

"That doesn't make you any less spoiled." He killed both fish with a stone, then opened them with a splinter of it. Kagome almost forgot about his insult as she watched, torn between fascination and disgust as he carefully pulled out their organs. She'd seen that done before, often actually, her mother liked to cook fresh fish, but never with quite such archaic methods and speed.

She _almost_ forgot but not actually. But how was she supposed to counter that? Maybe from his point of view she really was spoiled – No! She was doing the understanding thing again, she hated that sometimes. She had a feeling that she was all to willing and able to identify with people, even jerks such as Inuyasha. Jerk... then it occurred to her: he'd taken care of her when she was hurt, carried her around and sacrificed his shirt for her, and she hadn't even said that you or anything. No wonder he was a little irritated. Kagome sighed.

"Thanks."

"Huh?" Inuyasha looked up from the tricky task of spearing the now gutted fish with a blunt stick and shot her a inquisitive glare. He probably thought she was thanking him for calling her spoiled.

"You know, for saving me from the second kick and taking care of my wound." Her voice cracked slightly, it really sounded awfully high and childish. That unnerved her right then, somehow. Inuyasha stared at her, and she stared right back. 'His eyes -' she suddenly remarked 'they look almost golden again with the fire reflecting from them.' She became even more flustered when she realised that she'd thought that on her own and that no other part of her conscious could be held responsible for that.

"It's my job."

"Huh?" She'd been so lost in her thoughts that she'd forgotten she'd been talking to him.

"It's my job, I'm only stuck with this shit cause it's the only thing I'm good at, y' know, surviving and such."  
Kagome couldn't help feeling the flimsiest bit disappointed. Of course, if you put it that way, protecting her _was_ his job. And what was 'this shit' supposed to mean? She just had thought that maybe...

She brushed all those thoughts aside quickly and focussed on her new hobby instead: figuring Inuyasha out... okay so that wasn't really brushing all those thoughts aside, but still.

"Sooo.."

He snorted as he stuck the sticks with the fish into the ground so they hung over the flames.

"Sooo..?" Ok, so she was sticking her nose where it _possibly_ didn't belong sometimes. Nevermind.

Her plan was simple: she'd initiate innocent small talk, starting with his most recent experiences and going back in time until they reached the interesting parts, like his ban, or the time before.

"So you've really been living in Germany before you died? What's it like there?"

He shrugged. "I lived in Berlin, the former capital, so it wasn't really typically German around there. Large cities always are a little bit of everyhing. But it was ok, I guess."

"And what are the people like?"  
"Grumpy, especially if you lived in America before and compared the two countries, but that was also because of the Cold War. I guess most of them were just afraid. I mean, you could see the USSR if you just climbed onto the wall. The blokes I hung around with were different, though. I arrived there about the time punk arrived from the UK."

"You mean you were one of them?" Kagome found it a little hard to picture Inuyasha as a punk, mohawk, security needles, leather jacket and all.

"Nah, they were just fun to party with. And they all looked so fucking weird that no-one gave a shit about what I looked– ah nevermind."

"You mean your hair and the ears and that?"

"Yeah that. Not the ears, of course. No one ever saw those." He seemed to be uncomfortable talking about that so she just let it slide.

"What did you do for a living, then?"

"Different stuff. Building houses 'n stuff, physical work, you know? The things you can do without a proper education."

"You've no education? As in: never been to school?"

"Yeah, what about it?" He seemed to be uncomfortable talking about that so she just let it slide.

"What else did you do? Except building houses, I mean."

"Stuff, like I said. At first I was a bouncer, that was fun."

"A bouncer?"

"Yeah, you know the guy who's standing at the entrance of clubs and can decide who gets to go in and, and that's the fun part, who can throw people out if they misbehave."

'Figures.' Kagome thought. Now that was something she could easily picture him doing. Throwing people out of clubs.

"But how did you manage to get that job? If you only just arrived then you can't have been talking that much German already."

To her surprise he laughed. "That's true, I figured as much, so I asked someone who spoke English what 'I'm here to apply for the job as a bouncer.' was in German, and went there."

"And then what? I mean that's not all you had to say to get the job, right?"

He chuckled again."No, that was all I said."

"Yeah right."

"Seriously. They wanted to send me away at first when they realised that was about everything I was able to say, except for 'bitte' and 'danke' maybe. So I simply went up to some guy who stood around there, a bouncer as well I guessed, you know, like, I don't know, six feet six tall and built like a bull, and I just threw him across my shoulder with one arm, carried him to the desk of the guy who owned that club and dropped him there. Then, ok so I said something else, but in English, I said: 'Isn't that already about all I need to do?' "

Now Kagome was laughing, too. For all she knew about him, that was a very Inuyasha way of approaching difficulties.

Inuyasha shrugged. " Well. that convinced them. The owner actually laughed his ass off about it. He was an ok guy even though he was a pim- ah nevermind." He suddenly seemed to be uncomfortable talking about that so she just let it slide. Gah! Wasn't there anything unproblematic to talk about? What had been about to say anyway?

"So, if you lived in Germany that long, I guess you're rather good at speaking German."

"I never really got very good at it, I spent most of my time alone. The occasional 'I must ask you to leave.' and 'Hand me the cement, man.' wasn't really improving anything. My accent is awful." He seemed to be uncomfortable talking about that but she just decided to ignore that this time.

"But you do know something, right?"

"Yeah, sure."

"So, say something."

He looked at her blankly. "What do you want to know?"

"Dunno, just something."

"Mädel, da musste schon 'n bisschen genauer sagen waste von mir hören willst."

"Was that German?"

"Yup."

"What'd you say?"

"I said you were gonna have to be a little more specific about what you want me to say."

"Nah, that's stupid, say something interesting."

"Sei ruhig und iss deinen Fisch!" He suddenly shoved one of the fish at her, they were obviously done. She grabbed it by the stick.

"I guess that was German, too?"

"Yeah, I told you to shut up and eat your fish."

That he didn't have to tell her twice. She'd just postpone the subtle Spanish inquisition. She was dead hungry now. As was Inuyasha, by the sounds of it. He was currently swearing cause he burnt his mouth with the still very hot fish. She peeled off the scalded skin and blew onto the flesh. It smelled – well fishy – but delicious to her food deprived body. She took a careful bite and found it to taste accordingly.

They finished their meal in no time, and as the sun had sunk completely quite a while ago Inuyasha suggested that they go to sleep, or rather, that she sleep and he stay awake to guard their little camp. Kagome protested weakly, said they should split the watch, but her continuing yawning undermined her argumentation. In the end she just gave in and curled up close to the fire. She was with Orpheus within but a minute.

"Kagome, wake up."

At first she thought she was still dreaming, but when the hand on her shoulder wouldn't stop stirring her she figured that someone really wanted her awake. 'What's up?' She meant to inquire, but it came out more like

"Wzp?"

"Wake up already, woman."

Kagome blinked.

"'n'yassa?"

"Yeah, damnit. Move!"

She sat up groggily. It was still completely dark, why on earth was Inuyasha disturbing her sleep?

"What's up?" There, now she'd gotten it right.

Instead of answering he clamped a hand over her mouth, nah, over her face more like, his hand was just as insanely large as the rest of his counterpart's body.

"Listen!" he whispered.

She complied. What was he up to? She didn't hear a goddamn thing.

"Pfmpf!" she pointed out.

"That's right, I don't hear a fucking thing either. And that's bad, that's really bad."

He released her mouth. "Not a word. Stay put!" And he swished away into the darkness.

Kagome stared into the gleaming remains of the fire. So it was quiet, where was the problem? She listened again. Ok, that total lack of sound was a little spooky. She couldn't even make out the occasional rustle in the undergrowth one of the many night active animals might have caused. But still... then suddenly she knew what Inuyasha's problem was. The calm meant that none of the animals was moving, and they only ever did that when they sensed danger. Danger in the form of a larger animal, a carnivore. Or in this dimension a youkai. Duh!

Kagome instinctively scooted closer to the fire.

"Inuyasha?" She whispered. Where was that jerk, damnit?

Suddenly she heard a noise. Something clickered behind her.

She peered into the darkness.

"Inuyasha?"

AN.: Wow! It took me only, like, a week (or even less?) to finish this chapter, that's an incredible record for me! Bring on the champaign!

No seriously, I'm just on my Easter holidays, that's why I've so much time. So better don't get used to it cause school's gonna have my ass plus the very reluctant rest back on Monday.

whines .

Phrase I feel I used too often in this chapter: sth. occurred to someone . I just like the sound of it.

K, there's some German in this chapter, I think it's fun playing with the languages a little, though my repertoire only contains French, German, English of course, and a little Latin. Whatever.

Btw if any of you, for whatever reasons, like for a story, needs a translation into German that's better than what google has to offer, feel free to mail me or something. I mean I live there after all... and I get so little mail...

Hah! You thought I was done chattering?

Also, seeing as I now have first hand experience on how a constructive review can improve my writing, review pretty, pretty please!

Now that's it.


	8. Sticks and stones

**A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale**

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

Chapter 6

Sticks and stones

A.N.: Someone got carried away with the violence again and it wasn't me... or maybe it was.

The signs were there, but he'd ignorantly chosen not to heed them – until now.

When the girl he was supposed to pacify by an innocent declaration of love threw herself at him and declared her own minus the innocence and plus an obsessive devotion for him, it sparked suspicion.

When he with utmost effort managed to rip himself out of her grasp and, more importantly, out of the whirlwind of his own pent up needs and dangerously over inflated ego, thus preventing himself from doing something that might have been the proverbial drop causing his pools of self disgust to overflow, he declared the suspicion unreasonable.

When, after an agonizing wait, that wannabe miko finally managed to terminate their mission but left him to deal with her more than confused counterpart and said counterpart within seconds came to the genius conclusion that whatever had transpired was entirely _his _fault and acted upon it, suspicion returned full force.

When, and in the retrospective he was particularly embarrassed at this obvious lapse of reason, his rattled nerves and skyrocketing hackles immediately calmed at the sight of the girl's original body plus enticing yet soothing scent that was so much more concentrated in the otherwise almost scentless interdimension, he brushed suspicion aside for a better look.

When that bitch chose to go ballistic over one little joke he'd made at her cost, painfully reminding him not only of that most prominent of his flaws but also what it had let him to reveal to her the night before, he was too fucking furious to see suspicion trying to regain his attention.

But when they were sent into the second dimension and he took over his counterpart's body in the very moment he was trying to flee a violent mob of dwarfs and thus rendered Inuyasha unable to defend himself 'cause the control over this body was developing with agonizing slowness he finally realized what he was in for: one hell of a shitty day.

As soon as he had full control over his loaned body, brushing off those annoying twits with perhaps a little too much force as well as saving that trouble magnet of a girl had been delightfully easy but he wouldn't be fooled again.

Just because this counterpart's body came a lot closer to the standards the perfect union of power and efficiency that was his own body had set, didn't make him believe for a second that whatever lay ahead of him was going to be easy.

He was proved right when that burden of a so called companion he mercifully enough carried around not only made him fall but also unable to stay mad at her when he realized that she was hurt rather dangerously. And that was only the beginning: first she'd stubbornly refuse to let him take care of her wound, then while he did, she'd suddenly calm and do another thing he loathed; she pitied him. He could still feel her stares burning into his back while he set up a fire but he thought she'd forgotten about it when he went to catch some fish. But uh-huh, as soon as he returned she started her Spanish Inquisition she probably thought was subtle, although it was perfectly clear to him where she was going with her oh so innocent curiosity. He only went along with it because he still vividly remembered what she did as soon as she wasn't entertained in some way for longer than a few minutes and he was absolutely _not_ in the mood to deal with a crying woman in the body of a little girl.

And now, like the rotten cherry on this ice cup of crap, this:

He hurried through the forest surrounding their small camp in search of whatever had scared the forest's population into such tense silence. Whatever it was, it had to be some kind of youkai, and a big one, too. There was no other explanation for the underlying sense of panic that seemed to seep out of every den and nest. Alarmingly though, none of his senses delivered any hint on what exactly the danger was. Then suddenly he did hear something.

"Inuyasha?"

He stopped dead and turned. Was that woman out of her fucking mind? Hadn't he made it absolutely clear that she was to shut her fucking trap? He hurried back to the camp when he heard her a second time, her voice louder but also almost visibly drenched with fear. Fucking wonderful, nothing better than the stench of fear to attract youkai.

And then suddenly he heard it. It must have been lurking in the darkness completely motionless for to his accurate hearing the faint sound of its scales clicking against one another was like hand claps to a human ear. He reached the camp just in time to see the giant snake youkai shoot towards Kagome who sat frozen at the fire like a deer caught in the headlights. A snake youkai, that explained why he hadn't smelled it. While his counterpart's hearing was excellent his nose was hardly better than a human one, and snakes didn't smell very intensively to begin with.

He grabbed Kagome and jumped, neatly evading the giant fangs of the large reptile. As he landed right across the small river, he briefly considered his options. He was unarmed, too bad that this body had no claws, and he had Kagome to look after, in that case fleeing might be the better choice. On the other hand, snake youkai where insanely fast and persistent and there was a high chance that it had been attracted by the shard inside Kagome's body anyway and all that was going to make escaping it close to impossible. So, instead of wasting his energy by running away for the rest of the night he might just as well try to finish it there and then. The decision was made and he jumped once again as the snake catapulted itself across the river. He grabbed the branch of a tree above him and swung onto another, then climbed up to the crown. There he settled the trembling Kagome.

"Stay here; it should have at least a little trouble reaching you up here."

She just nodded and he dropped off the branch again. He ripped off another one on his way down to use as a weapon. He met the youkai half way up the tree and it opened its mouth, probably hoping he'd just fall right between its teeth. But he changed the direction of his fall with a forceful kick against the trunk of the tree and managed to not only evade the fangs but grab the beast's head instead. Not wasting another second, he gripped the branch tighter and rammed it into one of the few vulnerable spots a scaled animal of this size had to offer: its eye.

The youkai hissed in pain and fell, taking him down with it. He had to let go of his weapon if he didn't want to be squished beneath his opponent. He landed a little unbalanced but at least the beast seemed to have forgotten about the girl in the tree , 'cause it threw itself at him fiercely, the stick still protruding from its head. It was quite obvious that the wound had mostly just sent the god damn thing into an anger fueled frenzy, making it even quicker than before.

Inuyasha cursed himself for not having stopped to take some tool, a fork, anything that could be used as a weapon when he'd left the village.

Well, there was nothing he could do about it now.

The beast came at him again and he hauled himself out of its reach, but he was too slow this time, or it was too fast more like. He managed to escape its teeth but when it saw that happening it simply yanked its head to the side, whacking him into another tree. All air smashed out of his lungs and his skin tore in many places as he skidded down through the twigs and branches but at least none of his limbs felt broken. He hit the ground and had to lie there for a second because his vision spun viciously. Then suddenly he heard her scream.

"Shit. Kagome."

The youkai had obviously thought him dead, or at least knocked out, and had gone after his original prey again.

The dizziness fell off him and he hurried up to her hiding place, praying that it wouldn't be too late. Then suddenly the midnight dark sky above him lit with a blazing flash of pink light and before he knew what was happening lumps of bloody flesh rained onto him, followed by the rapidly descending snake youkai. By sheer luck he avoided getting dragged along but he followed it down nonetheless, to make sure it really was dead. It wasn't, but it wouldn't be living very much longer either. In a moment of mercy he jumped onto its head again and drove the branch still sticking in its eye all the way into the brain. The demon twitched, then slumped.

He found Kagome trembling and staring ahead with glazed over eyes, but without a drop of blood on her. She didn't scream this time when he snatched her and jumped onto another tree. Figuring that the bloody carcass would sooner or later attract all sorts of unwanted visitors to their camp he chose to leave the area and spend the rest of the night elsewhere. That elsewhere turned out to be another clearing at the bank of a small (the same?) river.

Seeing as Kagome had gone unharmed, he just set her onto the ground and moved to light another fire, which took him more than twice the time as usual, mainly because of lacking light but also because his stupid hands wouldn't stop trembling. It seemed as if his first near death experience since... around twenty years had not left him unaffected. That, and he'd probably hit his head when the youkai had tackled him. There, now he'd gotten the fire to work.

Suddenly a tiny, warm hand touched his forearm.

"You're hurt."

He glanced down at himself, taking in the various scratches and cuts marring his exposed chest and visible through what was left of his trousers, some of them still bleeding.

"Nah, that's ok, it's mainly the youkai's blood anyway. I'll wash up in the river and that's that."

"No, let me have a look at it, please, some of them look like they'll need to be bandaged!" Kagome inched forwards to examine him closer. He stood briskly and attempted to stomp off.

"Inuyasha!" He suppressed a shudder. There was something about that tone of her voice... Was it possible to sound concerned and angry at the same time? It reminded him of something... or someone...

He sighed. "Alright. I'll go wash up in the river now and then you can do whatever you think is necessary. Turn around."

He stripped out off the ragged remains of his pants and stepped into the knee deep and ice-cold water, then moved to sit awkwardly on the stony river ground. The water around him grew even darker for a while and he watched with mild interest as the soft torrent parted the bloody cloud into swaying strands. He bent to rinse off his arms and shoulders, then emerged. He briefly considered not bothering to fasten the former trousers around his hips again, but, remembering the seemingly endless struggle he'd had earlier this day when he'd tried to convince Kagome to take her robe off, he did. At least the damn cold water had numbed the pain somewhat, it had begun to get on his nerves a little. He sat down close to the fire, cause the bath had stolen the last of his body heat.

Kagome on the other hand seemed to have plenty of it. She'd knelt down besides him wordlessly and had begun examining his wounds. It turned out that the only one in need of a bandage was an ugly tear on his right shoulder blade, that, according to Kagome, still had splinters of bark in it. She ripped off a piece of her robe and dipped it into the river, then returned and began cleansing the wound properly. Despite the occasional pain, Inuyasha once again felt a feeling of peacefulness seeping through him, and he relaxed involuntarily, too exhausted to really fight it. Then, suddenly, he knew whom the way Kagome had spoken to him and the gentle way she took care of his wound reminded him of; his mother.

Now that was a clear sign that he had to have hit his head.

But still, her soft breathing and soft hands, and the occasional hushing noises she made when he tensed at an especially nasty piece of bark, those where some of his earliest as well as the most continuous impressions of his mother. He'd been hurt a lot when he was little.

He could have told her before, if he hadn't been so lulled into his sentimental remembrances, the position of the tear allowed no bandage, at least not with the limited amounts of tearable cloth they still had. He assured her it'd be ok, and she accepted that after the obviously obligatory minutes of insisting on the opposite. That girl, really.

She claimed that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep again tonight anyway, and that he could thus use the few hours till dawn to rest a little, but he would have none of it. He wouldn't be able to sleep anyway, or did she happen to hide a portable mini bar somewhere in that flimsy robe? That shut her up. So they just remained sitting at the fire, she staring into it and he staring into the surrounding wood. Now, with neither of them speaking, he could once again hear all the reassuring forest noises that had been lacking before. Wait, neither of them speaking? He threw Kagome an anxious glance. Well she did look sullen, sad maybe, but it might have been sleep deprivation, too. Still, he wasn't about to risk anything.

"So what was pink stuff you finished the youkai off with?" Yay! A subject to talk about that did not concern his private life.

She looked up from the fire surprised. "I've been asking myself that."

"Might have been your miko abilities. As far as I recall, those could be used not only in defense but also in offense."

"Yeah, that's what I thought, too... It's kinda strange... "

"What?"

"Those two, Sango and Miroku, that they prepare us so... "

"Shitty? Almost not at all?"

"Hmm."

"Yup, been wondering about that, too. A lot of the crap that's happened could very well have been avoided had they just told us a tiny bit more about what we were to expect."

"Yeah, I mean they knew I had these powers, they coulda just told me that I'm able to fire pink I-don't-know-what from my hands."

"Damn right. It's like they don't _really _want us to collect those goddamn shards... "

"But what do they want then? I mean, considering what they told us so far is true, forcing our souls over those of our counterparts must be one hell of a bother for that Sango. Strange."

"And the jewel is real; I'd recognize the fucking thing anywhere. And it _is_ powerful, I tell you that."

"... about that..."

"Nope."

"But why?"

"Cause it's none of your fucking business. I don't think I could tell you anything useful anyway. Just that it's fucking powerful for an ugly pink glass ball."

"If you say so..."

Silence fell over them again, and Inuyasha was at a loss of words. What was there to say? What a bother that girl was.

"Sooo..."

Now this again. The Spanish Inquisition part 2. Just as well, as long as she was occupied. Was it just him, or was the full-blown panic he felt when he thought about her crying maybe a little obsessive? Well, anyway.

"Sooo...?" Seemed like they were going to make this a habit.

"So, before you moved Germany, you lived in the USA?"

"Yeah."

"For how long? I mean, I assume that you woke up again in Japan, right?"

"Hmm. I woke up there but I didn't stay very long. There were still too many people who'd recognize me for what I really was, so I moved to Paris. I thought in a metropolis of that grandeur I wouldn't stand out as much."

"And?"

"Nah. Didn't really do it for me. I stood out already 'cause I was Asian, the hair did the rest. And learning French was such a fucking bother, a Japanese accent sounds kinda strange with that language."

"So what'd you do?"

"I spent round three years there, then I really had enough. So I thought that if big cities weren't for me then maybe wilderness would be. So I moved to Africa."

"Africa!"

"Yeah. Was kinda nice until World War II. I mean the continent is large, but most of the good places got into hearing range sooner or later, and I'd like to see anyone relax when they're firing canons and machine guns all around you. And I sure as hell wasn't about to go live in the friggin' Sahara."

"Wow, Africa. That is so... I've always wanted to go there someday... " Suddenly her face dropped. Really, how could someone wear her emotions right on her skin as much as this girl did?

"You still can. We'll just have to collect all the jewel shards and then you can have your life back, plus Africa trip."

Inuyasha had always wondered who'd come up with the word flabbergasted, and why, but seeing Kagome's face right then made him guess that this someone had simply sought to describe exactly that expression.

"Thanks." Or his. What was she thanking him for?

"What for?"

"For knowing what I was thinking about and saying what you did I guess. I didn't realize... "

"What?"

"I wouldn't have thought you to be so... perceptive."

Charming."Thanks a lot. You saying you thought I was stupid?"

"No! Just – wait – you were the one who was all 'Social? Never heard of that.' So don't blame me for believing you."

She had a point. But, he had one, too."Well it's true. I'm not into the whole interpersonal shit, it was just plain obvious what you were crying about the last two days 'cause you just fucking lost your whole life!"

'_Smoooooth._' Hell yeah, the voices were back. But they, too, had a point. She bit her lip although it was quite clear that it was shaking. Still, all he could do was watch with anxious fascination as her eyes grew moist and moister. She seemed to try to suppress it, but it was no use, the first tears spilled and his eyes followed them with dread as they ran across her chubby cheeks and dropped from her chin dramatically. He'd been right, it was even worse when she was stuck in the body of a little girl. Then she spoke, and her raspy, strangled voice did nothing to improve his state of mind.

"I hate you. You're right, I just lost everything I had, I was drawn into this hell of a task that is my only hope to regain what I lost but it seems to grow more insolvable by the second and all you're doing is either making fun of me or blocking me out completely, confusing me with your sudden almost caring antics or driving me insane! I don't know how you think that's gonna heighten our chances at re-completing the Shikon no Tama, and if you're so hell bent on not seeing me cry, and I figured as much 'cause you only ever talk to me when I'm about to, then I wonder why you're at the same time doing everything to make me!"

The fucking brat. What did she think this was to _him_? All fun and games?

"Get a fucking grip, woman! I don't give a stinking rat's ass about whether you're crying or not!" 'Not exactly true but oh well.' "And whoever gave you the impression I had any caring antics? I don't fucking care about _anyone_, including me most of the time, and this trip is not about to change that." 'Depends on how you look at it, but still... ' "Blocking you out? Hell yeah! If you're unable to mind your own fucking business! Making fun of you? If you insist on acting like a brainless moron then fuck it, 'cause I'll insist on telling you so as long as you do! And now let me tell you something about you! I've never met someone who cared so much about every other breathing creature, and that's not a compliment! We spent half a day in that shit dimension completely superfluously just because you thought we were somehow obliged to 'right the wrong we've caused'. You wanna know what I think about that? If those people are unable to deal with such ridiculous crap then they don't fucking deserve anyone's concern! They're gonna screw their fucking lives up anyway, sooner or later! So what's the fucking point wasting your time on it?

"And you're constantly endangering yourself! You don't seem to waste a second thinking about your personal safety and that's not a fucking compliment either, not when _I'm_ the one who's got to save your ass every time you don't. When that bitch sent her morons to beat me up, what was the fucking point trying to help me? You knew you'd never been in a fight before, what could you possibly have done? And today! What did you fucking think trying to pry a dozen of those motherfuckers off me would do anyone, most of all you, any good, when it was obvious that every single one of them was bigger and stronger than you? You're so fucking selfless and trusting I'm beginning to believe that you're convinced there's something good in everyone of us, or some sappy crap like that! There's just no other fucking explanation for that insane amount of confidence you're walking this world with and that - " he had to stop for a deep breath, "- is no fucking compliment!"

There, take that.

But, she didn't look all that touched by his reproaches, in fact her lips almost formed a amused smile. Damn that woman and her roller-coastering moods!

"Inuyasha, really, all you're accusing me of is being something like a good person, which I sure am not, but still."

"A good person? It's a fucking miracle you survived till your fifteenth birthday with that uncontrollable naiveté !" Ack! Foot in mouth detected. He'd probably never learn.

But at least she didn't start crying again.

"Why do you keep doing this? Do you really hate me?"

"What makes you think I – Ah forget it!"

"Yeah, forget it. Let's just forget that there are twelve more shards to collect and eleven more dimensions to travel. And that during all this time we're going to be each other's only person to relate to. Why try to get along when we could just as well argue all of the time? Nothing like constant bad moods to make working together all the more efficient."

"I can't relate to just anyone! In fact, I don't think I ever did!"

"I know it's not easy but you don't even try!"

Points, points, where did she get them all from all of a sudden? He glanced up to the sky as if to maybe find an answer up there but what he did find was an excuse to interrupt their stupid argument then and there. Dawn had, unnoticed by the both of them, broken quite a while ago and now the sun was already spreading her first rays over the morning cold earth.

"Sun's already up, I say we go looking for that shard."

"Oh no, we don't. Not until we've worked this out." Why had he known she'd say that?

"Look, let's just -"

" - forget it, I know"

"Shut the fuck up and listen to me!"

They glared at each other, breathing heavily.

"What I was going to say was, let's go find the shard first and do whatever you think is necessary as soon as we're back in that interdimension where we're not in constant danger of being attacked by random youkai that sense the shard in your body."

"Are you out of your mind? Don't you remember what happened to that Sango the last time we argued inside the interdimension? I think I'll be scarred for the rest of my li- existence!"

"Sure, I remember, but if you want to talk about us arguing less then it might even be rather productive if we had to remain absolutely calm. Besides, those two owe us for the shit they've been telling us anyway." Wherever that crap he fed her came from, Inuyasha hardly cared, as long as they'd stop these futile discussions now. He'd just find another excuse as soon as she'd start again. But she still seemed to be a little reluctant. What more was there to do to convince – ah, perfect.

"And then, if you were worried about our counterparts' reputations back in the other dimension, think about what people will think of yours as soon as she returns from her jolly trip with the freakish bastard. I'd say the shorter she stays away the less harm is done."

She gasped. Hadn't thought about that, huh?

"Oh my god, you're right! The poor little girl... Ok."

"Ok?"

"Yeah, lets get going."

Woohoo! He bent down to grab her once again. She stopped him with an upraised finger.

"But don't you think I'll just forget that we're far from having worked anything out between us. I'll get back to you about that."

"Keh! Whatever." He positioned her against his chest and took off.  
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"There! I can feel something!"

Inuyasha had this time been playing closer attention to her and had therefore been warned by her tensing before she yelled out in excitement. He finished his last leap and came to a smooth halt on a fallen tree.

They hadn't been running around the forest for long, but that came as not that much of a surprise, that girl's Shikon no Tama radar had a rather impressive range, he'd give her that.

"Yeah? Where's it come from?"

She pointed to his right. "From there somewhere. It's still really very faint."

He took off into the direction she'd indicated without another word. If he wasn't gravely mistaken, and he was pretty convinced he was not 'cause if there was one thing he had it was an almost supernatural sense of orientation – he snorted, like he wasn't supernatural all over, anyway – they were headed south-west, which meant they were pretty much moving parallel to the imaginary boundary between the two territories that probably lay somewhere in the middle of the wood separating the tribes.

"Tell me as soon as the direction isn't right anymore."

"Sure."

They covered a lot of ground rather quickly, Kagome occasionally correcting the course he took a little, and before the silence between them could have grown uncomfortable, the forest opened and they stood at the feet of a small hill.

"I think the shard is up there somewhere."

He squinted his eyes.

"Yeah, I can see something like a ruin up there. The youkai was supposed to live in a ruin, right?"  
"Hmm. So what do we do now?"

What kind of a question was that? "We're gonna go up there, kill the youkai and take the shard."

"But, after last night, don't you think that it'd be better to be a little more cautious? That thing yesterday was pretty dangerous already and it didn't have a shard."

"Nah, that's ok, it caught me unprepared, is all. This time I'm gonna make me some weapons beforehand, so I won't have to improvise again. That should do, this body is quite strong."

"If you say so... "

"Look, if it makes you feel better, I wasn't about to burst in there and then see what's actually going on. We're gonna sneak up and try to catch it off guard, I'm not completely insane yet!"

"It's just that we've done enough bad already, it would just be horrible if one of our counterparts died."

"I won't die, and as long as I don't die, you're not gonna die either."

She fell into silence after that, obviously not too convinced but at least she wouldn't object anymore either.

He collected whatever might be, with little effort, turned into a weapon and managed to produce six primitive spears from some sticks and stone and Kagome's former belt he still carried around. Said girl watched him with the same mixture of perplexity and curiosity she'd watched him light the fire with the other day. His primitive survival skills seemed to be utterly fascinating to her. He finished fixing the last stone to the last stick and eyed his work critically. Why oh why didn't his counterpart have claws?

Inuyasha mounted the hill with the caution Kagome insisted on and wiggled through the bushes atop it without breaking a single twig. He'd once been rather good at hunting. Obviously, that was something you didn't forget after thirty years of urban laziness.

"The shard hasn't moved in a while." Kagome's whisper broke the thick silence engulfing the whole hilltop. There was absolutely no life around. The mighty aura of the youkai inhabiting the ruin ahead of them probably kept even the cicadas away.

"Perhaps it's asleep or something."

Yeah. Or lurking for some idiot animal, or shard hunters, to stumble into its trap. No point panicking her, though.

The ruin proved to remind Inuyasha oddly of the scenario Sango and Miroku had greeted them with the last time, but he didn't fancy Greek architecture that much anyway. Those assemblies of pillars all looked pretty much the same to him. Then, on a closer glance he discovered that the pillars here only marked the entrance to a way larger building behind them.

"So, how close is it?"

"Can't really tell, but it feels... about as far as the girl was when I told you we should be able to see her, you know, when -"

"Yeah, I know." So around a hundred meters, a little more perhaps.

"Ok, that means if the spider's inside the ruin, it's pretty much at the far end of it, or, if it's outside somewhere, hiding directly behind it. Either way, I'd say it's better to approach it from the outside. Perhaps there's a window at the far end of the ruin, or a wall broken down."

"That _seems_ to make sense."

"What do you mean, '_seems_'?"

"Well, if I may remind you, the last time _you_ decided about our course of action we both got beaten up."

"Keh! First of all _you_ got beaten up, me, that was just scratches, and then if _you_ hadn't interfered, those wimps would have been no trouble at all! They just caught me off guard 'cause you had to lecture me about how stupid my plan was!"

"That doesn't make the plan itself any less stupid! One against ten, a normal person would want to avoid such a situation, even if they were convinced they'd make it!"

"Well, sorry I'm not normal, but, just in case it managed to escape your attention, I'm not even _human_!"

"This is not about being human, it's about possessing a brain!"

"A brain? W_ho_ was the one of us to-"

"Ssssshhhhh!"

"What-"

She clamped a chubby hand over his mouth.

"The shard has moved!" She whispered, "I think we might have alarmed the youkai."

"Fuck!" But it figured. They had – again – been arguing quite vehemently.

"Then again, our chances at really catching the thing off guard were close to non-existent anyway. Spiders have such accurate senses; they feel the tremors of your steps if you're approaching them."

"Thank you. That really calmed me." Irony? Sarcasm even? What was up with that girl? Since when had she started being her bitchy self again – wait, had she ever _not_ been like that? Damn her and her mood swings! Jeez, once he thought he about knew what she was like she changed again. Confusing.

Well it couldn't be helped. They'd have to face the thing sooner or later, so why not sooner, as long as the midday sun was up and they at least could fully exploit the advantage of their superior sight?

"Well since it knows we're here anyway, let's just wait till it comes. It should have sensed the shard already, and will want to have it, maybe even enough for it to change its tactics and try a direct attack. And we'll be warned since you can- "

"The shard is approaching."

"Like I said. Ok, stay _here;_ I'll do what I can. And fucking don't even _think _about interfering, you got that?"

"Yup."

What, no resistance, no discussions? Confusing, indeed.

"But – IIIaaaahhhhh!"

And, though he'd probably seen worse a few hundred years ago, Inuyasha struggled to suppress a shudder as the giant youkai came scrambling out of the ruin. It was fucking hideous! One of the hairy ones, with eight unsettlingly large and intelligent looking black eyes and, what was worse, a hind body the size of a fucking _van_! He glanced from the youkai to the spears he'd stuck under his arm. How on earth was he supposed to kill that monstrosity with _these_?

"Where's the shard?"

"On the underside of its belly, I think."

Fucking perfect, the least accessible place possible.

He sprinted towards the youkai, hell bent on not letting it get even close to Kagome. Reluctant to waste his precious spears he picked up a large stone and hurled it at the spider demon to get an idea on how easily hurt it was. The stone, a boulder almost, hit the demon's back – and just bounced off it. Yay! So he was facing an opponent that was about ten times heavier than him, faster, stronger most likely, had double the limbs and a body hard as armour. The only advantage he had was his humanoid intelligence, which he heavily doubted he even possessed, seeing as he was, after all, currently running head first into said opponent.

But the reflected boulder dropped onto one of the youkai's legs and broke it with a crunch. So at least the legs were breakable. He'd just have to break them all, turn the beast onto its back and extract the shard...

Well, at least he had a plan now...

The spider stumbled but managed to catch itself a little too quickly for Inuyasha's tastes. He had no more time to ponder, though; he was in jumping range now. And jump he did, directly onto the demon's back. He attacked the joint of the right hind leg, but he only managed a few thrusts until the youkai began to buck wildly to throw him off. Which it achieved quite effortlessly. Inuyasha hit the stony ground hard and the spears clattered around him. He could feel the wound on his back, that had only just stopped bleeding, reopening again. But, he ignored the pain and rolled away when the youkai came at him with that horribly large spider fang mouth thing braced apart to snap him in two.

Stones, he needed more stones, the spears were more or less inefficient. He picked up another small boulder. The youkai attacked again, and he had the choice: staying, smashing two legs with one stone but risking a bite, or evading and missing the chance.

The second of the hairy limbs shattered under the heavy stone in his hands with a squishy cracking noise as before, the same time as the spider's fang tore into his side. Within the brief moment before the pain would come he picked up a smaller stone and rammed it into one of the youkai's eyes. Then his body bent against his will as his brain registered the harmed tissue. Adrenaline spread through his system and slowed the action around him down considerably, or he himself sped up, either way, he had no trouble hurrying out of the range of the spider's now wildly thrashing legs. Apparently, it felt the pain of its lost eye a lot more intensively than that of its lost legs.

He pressed his hands to his side to stop the bleeding a little, the wound wasn't fatal, at least, all the while keeping an eye on his adversary and Kagome, who had indeed stayed where he left her and watched him anxiously. Since it still trembled in agony, he considered it safe enough to grab another stone and approach the youkai again.

This time he smashed another leg and got away unharmed. The giant youkai was moving a lot clumsier now, with half of its legs hurt. For the first time since he'd seen the goddamn thing, he felt like it was actually possible to kill it.

He came by the pile of spears and picked one up. Maybe he should rather try hitting its brain through one of the eyes, like he'd done with the snake youkai. But a thrown spear wouldn't have enough momentum to tear through that amount of tissue, he'd have to get close again.

The youkai in question had re-found its balance, more or less, and was now attacking. It came onto him fast and he braced himself to leap away. Then, suddenly, as he tensed to do just that, pain shot through him, pain of an intensity that made white lights flash before his eyes. He dropped to the ground and that probably saved his life. The spider's fangs missed him and the beast stumbled over him.

'Poison. Fuck."

You'd think that a spider that large simply wouldn't need to be poisonous, but nuh-uh! He scrambled away trembling wildly, thrashing almost, but then his body finally managed to send the last of his spare adrenaline through his body and the pain faded. He rose and turned in time to see the youkai doing the same. He leaped while it still swayed and landed on its back again, going for its eyes directly and ramming the spear into it with all the strength he could muster. But, it threw him off before he could do any fatal harm. During the short flight, brutally ended by the suddenly appearing ground, Inuyasha tried to recall anything useful he knew about spiders but - _quelle surprise_! - he didn't know a thing. He'd never been in a situation where he was unable to use his claws against one, and more than one swipe had hardly ever been necessary anyway.

To his utter shame, he fell unconscious for a split second or two, the impact really shattered his already fragile constitution. He came to his senses again as, for the second time inside this dimension, he heard Kagome scream in terror. He forced himself up and stumbled over to her. The spider hadn't bothered with him anymore as soon as he was out of it, or meant to use his momentary weakness to get the shard from Kagome, who knew, anyway. Inuyasha jumped for all he was worth, throwing himself between the girl and the spider's fangs. He hurled her away seconds before the fangs ripped his flesh a second time, though not as deeply as before 'cause he fell and scrambled out of their reach.

Very dignified, he thought as he stood shakily. To think that there had been a time when he'd killed youkai of that size with a flick of his wrist.

"You alright?" he yelled, remembering Kagome, whom he'd thrown away without bothering where really. He didn't really have the time to await her answer cause the youkai charged again, but he thought he'd heard a grunted "I'm ok but-" while he picked up another stone.

He was about to lift it and smash another leg, which could very well have been the last he needed to unbalance the spider completely when another spasm of pain shook him. He was forced to drop the boulder and curled into a ball to counter the mind blowing agony, but that proved to be a rather bad idea seeing as he'd just jumped to increase the impact of the boulder. He crashed into the ground, felt a rib or two break as they connected with some unfortunately placed stones and blackness fell upon him again. He struggled, but in vain. The last thing he saw was the brutally smashed eye of a giant spider, that strangely reminded his foggy mind of the first time he had to eat raw meat, after his mother's death.

He'd caught a rabbit but ripped it apart almost completely in the process.

"Gee, that was - "

"Wake up! Please Inuyasha!"

The voice suddenly ringing in his ears confirmed the suspicion he'd been having for quite a while: Those eight-eyed dancing rabbits couldn't possibly be real, they had to be a part of some really weird dream.

He tried to open his eyes and succeeded, but what he saw was far less unsettling. Someone's face was hovering but an inch from his own and calling his name.

He attempted to shove the person away but his arms wouldn't quite obey.

"Inuyasha! Please wake up, it's still alive and I don't know whether I'll be able to do that again!"

Wait! He knew that voice.

"Kagome?"

"Thank god, you're awake!"

She helped him sit up.

"I did the pink stuff again, but I haven't really figured out when it works and when not. The youkai seems to be – ah! It's rising! Do something!"

Inuyasha glanced around quickly and found what she was talking about: The spider youkai lay a few meters away and was indeed attempting to rise, but a considerable part of its hind body seemed to be missing.

"You did that?"

"Yeah, dunno how, it was about to rip you apart and I actually only, you know, reached out for you and screamed your name, but then the pink stuff came from my hands and hit the youkai."

Judging by the size of the hole, that had to have been one enormous blast of spiritual energy. That girl sure was powerful.

The spider was now standing on shaking legs and Inuyasha realized that it was about time he really did something. A short check of his condition brought up nothing too promising: two ribs broken, scratches all over and, most probably, fatal poisoning. But, he was still able to walk and throw stones, he estimated, so it'd have to do. He'd just have to be quick, 'cause judging by the way his body shook uncontrollably, the poison was already attacking his nerves.

But, happily, killing the youkai was a matter of seconds, another stone, another leg, rendering it unable to move and he could easily drive the spear still sticking in one of its eyes all the way into its brain.

With his opponent dead it seemed as though the last of his strength decided to call it a day and he just slid to the ground, not intending to move another muscle until they'd left this rotten dimension again.

Kagome came and did something really spooky that from his position looked like she just reached through the youkai's shell and extracted the shard, but he wasn't all that sure 'cause he was slowly beginning to lose his sight.

"Are you alright?" Kagome knelt down to examine him.

"Poisn." huh, so the poison was already affecting his brain. Which might have explained the trance like calm he felt, instead of a slight panic or a little remorse or whatever is expected from someone who is dying. He gave it another try.

"Poison"

"You mean the spider was poisonous?"

He nodded.

"But that's horrible! Doesn't it hurt?"

"S'ok." he assured, although the pain was actually bordering on unbearable. But, it wasn't like she could possibly do anything about it, so why worry her?

"Are you – is he gonna...?"

"Die? Yeah." Even if it weren't for the poison, he'd probably die of the rib slowly penetrating his lungs. Must have happened when he was lifting the last stone. The sniffling alarmed him. She wasn't – she was crying. Great. What'd he done now?

"Stop that!"

"What?"

"Crying!"

"But it's all because of me! Just because I can't really use my powers you had to risk your life protecting me! And now you're dying! And the poor boy whose body you've taken will die, too."

"S'ok, 'tis what I got to do... Protect you." And it wasn't like the his hanyou counterpart would miss being bullied by the dwarfs all that much, if he still was in his right mind.

"Yeah I know it's your job, but you sure aren't supposed to endanger yourself the way you did when you threw yourself in front of me! No one can expect you to, that's just insane!"

"You rather... I let you... die?"

"Yes! If saving me means getting yourself killed!"

"No sense."

"What?"

Talking was getting increasingly difficult now. "You... make... no sense."

"Why – oh my god, sorry! I'm gonna get us out right now! Then you won't hurt any more."

She placed the shard in her upturned hands and began whatever it was she had to do to make it fuse with her.

Inuyasha watched her through heavy lidded eyes. That girl made absolutely no sense. She couldn't possibly have meant what she just said? She wanted him to be selfish? To value his own life higher than hers, or rather, since it wasn't really their own bodies they were wasting here, rather put her in pain instead of himself? She must have been out of her mind. She didn't even like him, why did she care about his well-being? Out of her mind, indeed.

And again reminding him of his mother. She too had never wanted him to protect her when the people, in the village they'd fled to, threw stones at her, although he was, even at the age of four, already way tougher than her. But, she always walked on proudly and feigned indifference, and when he asked her about it later she'd say that since none of what was happening was his fault he shouldn't be hurt because of it. He'd argue that it couldn't be her fault either, cause she'd told him that she'd loved his father, and that it was never wrong to do something out of love. But, she'd say that she deserved those stones for she had not acted upon her love when she should have, because she'd feared the consequences, the hurt. She'd never explained her words and so Inuyasha wasn't entirely sure what they meant, even now.

"Aw, crud!" Kagome dropped her hands into her lap. "I still have no idea what I'm supposed to do! It just happened the last time, but I don't know how!" She looked at him concernedly. "I'm sorry, it might take a while. Will you be alright?"

His tongue felt thick and heavy but he managed to form a word around it.

"Yeah."

"Really I - "

"Hurry – dying." Why was she still talking if she was so concerned about his pain?

"Soon? Oh my god, that must hurt so much! Is there anything I can do to ease the pain? I really don't know how much longer it will take."

Well she could try killing him now, that'd sure ease the pain considerably, but he couldn't possible ask her to do that. Suddenly a picture appeared in his mind, a memory, probably stirred up because he'd been thinking about his mother.

"Head... lap?"

"Huh? Lap? You want to put your head on my lap?"

He nodded, blushing. What had he been thinking? There was no way she'd -

"Ok, come here, I'll help you." She patted her lap.

She all but pulled him onto her thighs and he suppressed a contented sigh when the strain in his neck eased... well, and when her scent soothed the pain a little. She really did smell nice, no matter the dimension it seemed. But, he wasn't about to let her know that.

She started her meditation again, her face a mask of determined concentration. Inuyasha closed his eyes and was lulled into a sleep his counterpart would most probably never wake up from again by her even breathing when suddenly drops of warm liquid dropped onto his temple.

"Why... cry?" he couldn't even open his eyes any more, he estimated he had another five minutes, maybe ten to live.

"It doesn't work! I just don't know what to do I – I- " she broke out sobbing and whined something incoherent. Then she squealed.

"Ah! It's working! Fuse! Fuse already!"

And she it really seemed to have worked, cause she went limp and didn't talk anymore, which probably meant that she was leaving her counterpart's body. Fucking Miroku, couldn't take him out first even if he was dying!

"What's – where - ?" Ah, so her counterpart had awoken. This would be fun.

"Kitan? What are you – IIIIIIEEEEK!" She'd probably discovered the spider.

Either he was beginning to leave the dimension or he really was dying now, the feel of this body slowly got weaker.

'Well, at least this one didn't punch me." he thought as the sounds and smells dulled into nothing.  
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A.N.: Yeah, I know it's been long, but schools a bully one year before graduation (or whatever 'abitur' is wherever you come from). I had to write an essay in French! Twelve pages! I feel I deserve some pity... maybe... Or not, since I chose to do it.

Anyway, this is my first beta read chapter, I'm sure every thing's a little easier to read now

THANK YOU ALVIDA!

... now with that said, read and leave a review if you have the time...


	9. Black ²

**A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale**

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Chapter 7

Black ²

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Disclaimer: No Mangaka with only a hint of common sense would leave something as precious as Inuyasha to me... alas, I don't own him.

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Tears still streamed down Kagome's face when her soul reassembled in the interdimension. She'd never before seen someone die, not even her own father, and seeing someone die in agony as intense as Inuyasha's face had mirrored it was an experience she wished she had been spared. And the pain must have been unbearable, what else could have possibly made him want to lay his head on her lap? The fact that he was basically dying because of her did not help her feel any better about it.

"Ah! Kagome!"

She opened her eyes and saw Miroku lying on a comfortable looking leather couch. She glanced around for Sango but the goddess was nowhere to be seen. Just as well, that meant Miroku was going to get it first. She stomped towards him and staggered.

"Careful!" he smiled. "Give your soul a little rest!"

There he was again, so friendly and innocent, when Inuyasha's pain was just as much his fault as it was hers. Why hadn't he told them more? About her miko abilities? About - Kagome was about vent her anger, that was more of a disappointed confusion, verbally when suddenly a red and white blur shot past her and grabbed Miroku off the couch to press him into the wall to their left. Ah. So Inuyasha was back, his soul not the slightest bit deterred by the sudden change of form.

And in an even worse mood than her.

"Do it again and I'll run an experiment on the killability of a soul, and you'll be the object of my researches." He laid a single claw against the side of Miroku's neck, just about where Kagome, who approached hurriedly, reckoned his main artery lay. But Miroku's smile never left his face.

"You'll excuse my confusion, Inuyasha, I dearly hope , for I haven't the slightest of ideas what you are talking about."

Kagome wasn't all that sure but she thought she heard a snort from somewhere behind her. When she turned to look though, all she saw was an empty armchair.

"Yeah, sure! The first time I would have dismissed as a coincidence, but after that last dimension!" The single claw at Miroku's neck was joined by the rest of Inuyasha's hand, now slowly closing itself around said part of the monk's anatomy.

Kagome decided that even though she was mad at Miroku and Sango for telling them so little, those crimes where not punishable by death. It was time for an interjection on her side. She laid a hand on Inuyasha's arm, he didn't seem to mind her touching him all that much after all. "Aww, come on Inuyasha. We don't even know if it was on purpose. And what do you mean 'the first time'? What else are you so mad about? You've only ever seen him when I was around, too, and I didn't notice anything."

Miroku beamed at her words. "Both of you, you are confusing me gravely. What has transpired to enrage you so, that obviously completely slipped my attention?"

This time Kagome was sure she heard someone snort.

Inuyasha seethed. "You shut the fuck up, bouzu! You know damn well what I am talking about. I ain't taking your shit!" He lifted the object of his fury off the ground.

'With one hand,' Kagome thought in awe and mentally smacked herself for her inanity immediately. The poor man obviously was suffering, judging by the way his eyes began to water.

"Sango, please," he rasped out.

The goddess suddenly appeared on the couch next to them, snorted again, and gave him a stern glare. "You know as well as I do that he's 100 right about you. And you still expect me to help you? You can't die. Be a man or something. Besides -" Her aura suddenly seemed to bristle and flicker like an open fire. "- after what you did yesterday you can't honestly expect me to save your lecherous hide, now can you?"

Well, she seemed to know what Inuyasha was on about. Lucky for her. Kagome still didn't have a clue.

"Inuyasha, please let him down. Whatever he's done, he can't deserve you strangulating him!" She gestured towards Miroku's gradually bluing face.

Inuyasha's eyes never left his victim's, which were glazing over slightly. But he loosened his grip nonetheless and dropped the monk, who crumbled to a motionless heap on the ground before him. He crouched down to poke at him. "Fucking asshole."

Kagome moved to kneel beside him. "Gods, really. " She traced the imprints of Inuyasha's hand and the tiny red spots where his claws had nicked the skin a little with her fingers. "Besides not informing us well enough, what _did_ he do?"

Inuyasha bristled once again. "What do you mean, 'besides'? My counterpart died because of them! You got hurt because of them! And about the other stuff: You remember when he so stubbornly insisted that I go in first?"

Well, yes she did, but she'd thought nothing of it at that time. "Yeah?"

"Guess what my counterpart was right in the fucking middle of when I merged with him? Huh?"

She shrugged.

"He was right in the middle of a sprinting lane, running his ass off. Now imagine yourself suddenly taking over a body and finding it moving at approximately 25 fucking km/h."

Oh. Well that sure wasn't all that pleasant. "Ouch?"

"Damn right. I fell, and the whole fucking sprinting team stumbled over me for what it felt like."

"OK, that's not so nice but how can you be so sure he did it on purpose?"

Inuyasha squatted onto his haunches and balanced himself with his arms between his legs. '_Kind of like a dog, and look at those ears!_' some superfluous part of Kagome's mind remarked. But she chose to ignore it.

"I wasn't sure, just wary, until we left the first dimension. The least he could have done would've been to fucking take me out first, and not leave me to face that maniac after she's just awakened from two days of unconsciousness. You think that girlfriend had quite the temper?" He rubbed his jaw. "Damn, that girl completely freaked out, but was she fucking asking me what was going on or anything? Noooo. A straight punch to my jaw to solve it all. Jeez."

Kagome bit back any comment pointing out that this reminded her awfully of _his_ way of dealing with conflicts, not about to provoke yet another 'disagreement' between them when Sango was around to go apeshit on them about it. Instead she focussed on the still very much out of it Miroku.

"I'll admit it's possible that he did it on purpose, and SHE seems to agree, but still. Did you really have to strangle him? He seems like a nice enough guy to me."

"Keh! You saw for yourself what happened next! He sent you in first again, and I got to enter a fucking running body _again_! Now tell how there's no fucking pattern!"

He shoved the still unconscious monk angrily. Whew. That violence probably was part of his personality, Kagome tried to calm herself little. 'And it isn't like he just bursts out completely unexpectedly, like some kind of lunatic.' But he still startled her when he suddenly charged onto Miroku like a rampant bull. The same mixture of seemingly aimless aggression and lightning quick efficiency she'd witnessed him fighting with before, just that his tactics obviously were a whole lot different with his original body. 'But still, he sure _is _violent.' Maybe she was too forgiving here, thinking that Miroku didn't deserve that kind of treatment but – Kagome stopped dead in her thoughts as she suddenly felt something warm settle itself against an up to that point securely guarded part of her at the very rear of her body. She just about had time to look behind her and take in the purple cloth that identified the culprit when she felt herself being roughly swept away from the offending hand. The rising growl identified her saviour and she directed the only words appropriate to him.

"I'm taking it all back. Kill him now!"

He raised a clawed hand and struck but it only cut air. An invisible force had lifted the lecherous monk and swept him over to the couch where Sango sat seconds ago. She now lounged in the armchair and glanced at the ceiling.

She sighed, then shot them a stern glare."Keep those emotions in check! You can argue and be mad at him all you want inside the dimensions but not here!"

Miroku dropped onto the couch and played dead again.

"And you! Don't think for a second that this will not have any consequences! I wish, really wish, I could block out your thoughts sometimes. You're sick, you realise that?"

Miroku rose carefully, rubbing his bruised neck."Yes, dearest Sango-mistress, but you keep me around nonetheless so my attractive qualities must still outweigh the more appalling ones," he smirked and Inuyasha snapped again.

"I'll wipe that smirk - "

"STOP IT!"

Uh-oh. The flames were back. Inuyasha disappeared right before Kagome's eyes and reappeared behind her. Hah. So even he got scared sometimes.

Sango gestured for them to sit down on another couch that had just appeared.

Well, they seemed to be in no particularly pressing hurry so Kagome decided to finally voice her bewilderment."So what's it with the changing sets all of the time? And the clothes?" Sango was now wearing a simple black sweater with matching sweatpants (just as inappropriate for a goddess as having headaches, in Kagome's mind).

She raised an eyebrow. "You mean why do I keep changing them? Dunno why really. Since everything you see is me it's nothing of an effort to give it any form I like. I just do what comes to my mind and is useful."

"Ah." That was a little disappointing, just like all the rest about her. You'd think a deity of unlimited power would behave a little more.. dignified.

"Yeah, yeah. How I longed to know that. Let's get to the important part. Why didn't you tell us about the wench's powers? We could've made good use of them if only she'd known how to use them."

"Well- " Miroku started but Sango hushed him with a flick of her wrist.

"You shut up! Leave!" And he disappeared.

"Now as to your question, assuming you mean her ability to use her spiritual energy as a means of offence; the kind of power she possesses is called raw or wild ki, which means that her powers are latent and untrained, but strong. That kind of power can, at least at first, not be used at will but needs to be triggered by a very intense emotion or imminent danger. We could have told you but it would have been no use, quite the opposite. For the powers to develop freely it is actually necessary that they overwhelm their host at first. She'll develop a better sense of her limits that way."

"Riight." Kagome wasn't sure she fully understood, but what she did understand was that Sango and Miroku weren't really to blame.

"And about that bouzu! Why does he keep doing all that shit?"

"Well... " Sango appeared a little uncomfortable all of a sudden. "He's got a strange sense of humour, and he's a pervert on top of that. I'll make him stop."

"Why are you keeping him around anyway?" Kagome dared ask. She'd been asking herself that question before.

"That's not for you to know. Now, there's another thing Miroku did not tell you until now-"

So there was something going on between them, why else would she avoid the topic that vehemently? "But with the events inside the last dimension it became kind of obvious that you'll need to know about it." Sango leaned forward in her chair. "You mustn't die. If you, or rather the body of your counterpart, were to die both souls will detach from it. That will cause them to, how do I explain this- Miroku!"

At her call the monk reappeared inside the room again."Yes, Sango?"

Sango leant back in her armchair."Explain to them why they mustn't die, I just know they won't get it if I do."

"With pleasure." The monk turned towards them and graced them with a blazing smile that faltered slightly when Inuyasha growled at him. But Kagome agreed for once. She wasn't about to forget what a... not monk he was.

"If you die, not only your soul but also that of your counterpart will leave it's current body and, of course, be reborn, but firstly into the body of a newborn and secondly most probably anywhere on the planet but close to the shard you're supposed to find. There would just be no way to get the two of you into the dimension together, and sending one of you alone is not an option for the obvious reasons. So the death of each of you would gravely endanger your mission and of course your reward, if I may remind you."

"You mean I wouldn't be getting my life back?"

Miroku nodded in affirmation.

Panic surged through Kagome at the sheer thought. To think how often one of them could have died inside the last dimension! And she'd never get to see them all again. Her mama, her br-

"Stop it woman! You don't want her to freak out on us again, do you?"

Ah. She'd been doing it again. She'd have to be more careful what she thought about, the sadness and self-pity were still lurking in the shadowy corners of her mind it seemed. And why was that block head of a hanyou so attuned to that very nuance of her emotions? He always knew when she was about to cry, almost before she knew herself. Weird.

"So what about the next dimension? Anything we might wanna know like what species our counterparts belong to, or that the youkai are so friggin' large we better bring along something else than stones to defeat them? Might be useful, you know."

"... no. Your next destination does in fact not differ as much from yours as the one just now, it's inhabited by humans only. The technical and cultural progress in the region you will be travelling is on a level comparable to that of the late 17th or early 18th century in your dimension, a pre-industrialisation aristocracy. Your counterparts are both inhabitants of a larger country estate, the summer and spring palace of a count. The shard is in the possession of the neighbouring county. It's part of their family treasure but, as far as we know, not in direct use. The problem is that there is some kind of an underlying animosity between the two counts, the slightest disturbance might cause a feud to break out, so you'll have to be rather subtle in whatever you do to get the shard."

"So no fighting?" Inuyasha asked with a touch of disappointment. Really, he'd just been more or less killed by a giant spider youkai and was still that eager to fight more?

"At least not as long as it is avoidable. Is there anything else you feel you need to know?"

"Well," Kagome hesitated, it was a stupid question really. "Who am I gonna be? You know, a maid or... "

"Your counterpart is the youngest daughter of the count."

Yay. She was going to be a princess. She looked at Inuyasha.

"What?" he snapped defensively when he realized her staring.

"Well don't you want to know who your counterpart is in that estate?"

"Keh. Why would I care? Besides, knowing my luck he'll probably turn out to be the stable boy or something."

"Quite right, Inuyasha."

"See? ... The fuck! I really am gonna be a fucking stable boy?"

"The assistant of the official stable boy, to be precise, but he is of such an age that calling him boy is hardly appropriate." Miroku obviously tried to subdue a smirk, whether because he feared Inuyasha or Sango Kagome could only guess.

"Fucking great!"

Kagome, too, suppressed a chuckle. "What's your problem with that? Come on, the stable boy and the princess, that's a classic!"

"Yeah, a classic 'romance novel' plot... uhm."

Kagome choked on her chuckle as blood shot to her face. He was right, she'd read a load of these when she was younger... well, a few months - maybe days younger... and that paring did appear quite often. If only she'd read some of the less... steamy ones she'd probably not have to wipe out all the unwelcome pictures popping up in her head. It did not exactly soothe the heat in her face that Inuyasha's t-shirt had drawn taut over his chest and stomach when he'd sat down... no, not at all. She closed her eyes. Shirtless stable boys... dog eared, shirtless stable boys danced on her closed lids. That didn't help either.

But Inuyasha seemed to be thinking somewhere along those lines too, what she saw of his face peaking out under his bangs was of a more than healthy colour.

A sudden shuffling made them both look up and they saw Miroku hastily flee to some far corner of the room. His shoulders were shaking.

"Yeah right." Even Sango's voice was laced with amusement. "Seeing as you can discuss these things inside the dimension just as well, I say you're gonna go there right now."

A thought broke through the layers of embarrassment and annoyance surrounding Kagome's mind. Discuss... that reminded her of something. Ah yeah! Inuyasha and she were supposed to talk about their constant quarrelling before they entered the next dimension. He probably thought he was gonna get away without it, and honestly, he almost had, because Kagome had forgotten about it during the fight and when he was dying on her lap.

"No! Could we first get some time alone, Inuyasha and me? There's some things we need to talk about."

A strangled sound came from Miroku's direction. Inuyasha groaned, but for a whole other reason.

"No. I won't risk you having any strong emotions in me again. That wave of embarrassment was unnerving enough already. You can talk inside the dimension, you'll probably spent a little more time there anyway, since you'll first have to figure out a way to reach the neighbouring county without sparking a feud."

"Ah but -"

"Yeah, that's OK. Let's go then." Inuyasha agreed eagerly. He thought he was gonna get away like that. Well he'll see.

Alright."

"Fine. Miroku!"

Miroku had calmed down again in his corner. "Yes, beautiful?"

"Send them in. And if I were you, I'd watch what Inuyasha's counterpart is doing. I won't save your lecherous hide again."

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Blackness.

As her mind slowly gained control over her new body that was the first thing she saw, or rather did not see.

By the time her soul had merged with the body of her counterpart completely she realized she was surrounded by darkness.

'Not this again!" she yelled in frustration.

But she refused to panic before she knew what was going on. She definitely was not back in the nothingness room again, because she could hear the distant sounds of some people talking, feel the brush of her clothes on her skin and realized she was lying on something bouncy, a bed most likely.

So maybe she was in her counterpart's bedroom and the curtains were still closed. Yeah, that'd probably be it, she decided, slid off the bed and went searching for the windows. She was obviously wearing a rather cumbersome robe, she judged by the way the cloth weighed heavily on her shoulders. Had that princess been sleeping in her dress instead of a nightgown? Weird.

Now if only she'd find that stupid window she thought as she felt her way through the room. It was rather large, and full off furniture- ouch, now she'd hit her toe on some ... chair.

She turned right and moved forward even more carefully. Suddenly her fingers encountered something cold and smooth. 'That feels like glass... " But that couldn't be, it was completely dark, how so if the curtains weren't drawn?

Ah, maybe it was her mirror. Yeah, that was it. She turned again and moved into another direction. By now she didn't have the slightest idea any more where the bed stood she'd come from. Great, just how insanely large was this room?

Kagome was about to decide that this room simply had no windows, but an insane amount of mirrors, when suddenly someone knocked on her door.

"Kagome?"

"Inuyasha?"

"Yeah. Come on, open the door, it's locked from the inside."

"OK, wait a minute." Kagome moved into the general direction of his muffled voice carefully.

"What are you doing in there, woman? Hurry the fuck up, I don't think anyone will to pleased seeing the stable boy hangin' round at the princesses' door! Bad enough that I had to ask my way to it."

"Just wait, it's completely dark in here, I'm having trouble finding the door."

"Dark?"

There, her hands met something wooden. She felt for the handle and found the key beneath. The door swung open as soon as she turned it. She was pushed into the room and heard the door being closed hurriedly.

"About fucking time, someone was coming."

"Well you're in now."

"Keh... Umm, Kagome?"

"What is it?"

"You know, you said it was completely dark in here... "

"Yeah I know, I couldn't find the curtains."

"Well they're drawn."

"What?"

"Yeah, the rooms completely alight. Dunno why you – oh."

"Oh?" That did not sound good.

"Your eyes... "

"What about them?"

"They're white all over."

"You mean... ?"

"Yeah, I think your counterpart is blind."

OK, maybe it was now time to panic a little. "Gah! That's – that's – !" She threw her arms into the air in a vain attempt to demonstrate her unutterable feelings that way.

"Ah, could be worse." Inuyasha commented as he caught her wrists and stilled her arms. "You could be deaf and mute for example, and then we'd really have trouble communicating."

"But I- "

"And it's only temporary anyway. You're gonna have your eyesight back as soon as we find the shard, so we'll just hurry up with it." he reasoned.

Wow, he was being kinda nice for once. And he was right, it really was no use complaining now.

_'And'_ that unnecessarily honest part of her added, '_You're really only disappointed that you won't get to see yourself as a princess... and Inuyasha as a shirtless stable boy._' 'oh shut up, that's not true!' At least the latter wasn't. But she really would have liked to see her dress. No girl ever forgot about her little girl fantasies of castles and princes and glass shoes, well, Kagome obviously hadn't.

"So what do I look like, then?" she asked before she realized the words leaving her mouth.

"Huh? Dunno, like a... slightly dishevelled princess of about twelve?"

Gah, he must have been thinking she was crazy... but she really wanted to know about it. The shard could wait, curiosity decided."What's my dress like?"

"... Green."

... Inuyasha wasn't exactly the one to talk about such things with. Too bad."And the castle? What's it look like?"

"Dunno, it's rather big, but not that big since I had no real trouble finding you. There's lots of people around, servants and whatnot. I think there's some kind of party coming on, they're decorating 'n stuff."

Crud, a ball maybe, and she was unable to see it.

"Look woman, I-"

"And you? What do you look like?"

He sighed. "... I'm a boy. Body of someone who works hard. And dirty. I guess I must be smelling off horses."

He was right, she hadn't been paying attention to it before but he did smell off fur, straw, mud and horse muck. Hah, they never considered that in those stupid romance novels. Why would someone fall for a man who smelled off horse crap?

Although, on a second sniff, the combination of those smells with that of male sweat and skin made for a more... interesting than appalling melange...'Gee, Have I been listening to my own thoughts recently?' Really, she should try and focus a little, on the shard for example.

"So what do we do to find out about how to get to the shard?" she asked in a matter of fact tone as if she'd not just been behaving like a little girl.

"Well, I'd say you try to pry some information out of your counterpart's pals, her family and such, and I'll go ask the staff."

"But I can't see! I'm hardly able to walk on my own, and besides, how am I supposed to distinguish between the staff and the others?"

"...yeah, that might be a little problematic."

They fell silent as they contemplated these difficulties.

"I'll just lead you, and we'll do it together. The staff usually knows more anyway. That is, unless you want to stay here alone."

"No, take me with you."

"Thought so. Then come on." He grabbed her arm and pushed her forwards. She all but stumbled over the hem of her robe.

"Careful!" she hissed.

"Keh."

But his grip loosened and he lead her through the door with caution.

They wandered around the castle for a while, and did indeed meet lots of people, who according to Inuyasha all seemed to be too busy for a little chat, despite the fact that they all watched them confusedly.

"Maybe if we went to the kitchens... ? There should be so many people around there, at least one of them must be willing to talk to us."

"Why not. Come on, this way."

They found the kitchen easily, Kagome mused that she would have been able to find it on her own even, she'd just have had to follow the increasing noises and smells. When Inuyasha stopped everything around them fell silent suddenly. Something metallic clattered on the floor.

"Milady?" a hesitant voice asked after a moment of awkward silence."Is something amiss, Milady?"

Inuyasha nudged her. Ah. They were talking to her. "No. I just... felt like taking a little walk. Inu- this polite lad here helped me around."

"... In that case, does Milady mind us taking up work again?"

"... No, no that's alright."

The noise picked up again and Kagome turned in the general direction of Inuyasha. "Doesn't seem like anyone's gonna talk to you if you have me in tow. What do we do?" she whispered.

What Inuyasha's answer to her question was she never found out, because the next moment someone stomped up to her and shrieked.

"But Milady! I have been looking for you everywhere! And where do I find you? Amidst the...-" the person lowered their voice, now only sounding like a parrot instead of a heartbroken Banshee. "-commoners. Let us pray that his Lordship, your father will not find out about this!"

Kagome was grabbed by a strong pair of hands and hurriedly led away. "But- " she protested weakly. The woman, her counterpart's maid most probably, ignored her and rushed through the corridors of the huge house.

"Milady, Milady, what has gotten into you? Letting that young man of... dubious reputation get so close to you! More than one of the maids that had to quit duty here named him as the culprit, but to think that he would show so little respect as to even lay as much as a common eye on his Lordship's treasured daughter!"

She let go of Kagome for a second, to open a door Kagome guessed, then took her arm again and led her into the room ahead.

"Oh my, your hair! What a mess, let me take care of it. Just sit down here."

Kagome did as she was told and carefully lowered her behind until it met the soft cushion of some chair. The maid began pulling the needles out of her hair.

"But that stable boy, we cannot let him get away with this outrage. Taking advantage of your weakness in such a way! Maybe we should still tell your father, that boy needs a good whipping."

"No!" Kagome protested, for the first time finding her tongue since the woman snatched her away from Inuyasha.

"Milady?"

"I asked him to lead me to the kitchens, he's innocent!"

"Innocent is not what I would call him, but if Milady is sure..."

"Yes! No whippings."

"What business did Milady have in the kitchens anyway?"

"I just... " Now that was the part about all the dimension traveling she dreaded most, except for the youkai maybe, finding plausible explanations for their counterparts' weird behavior without knowing a single thing about them.

"I just felt like walking around among people a little."

"Milady is not... " The woman hesitatingly stopped brushing her now freed strands. " Milady does not feel she is being forced into that engagement?"

"Enga- " Kagome interrupted herself in time. So her counterpart would be married soon? Hadn't Inuyasha said that she looked to be around twelve? Wasn't that a little young, even considering the time?

"The Fantenburoughs' heir is a fine man, Milady, his Lordship would not have it any other way."

"... Yeah, I guess."

"But Milady! Such language, so common! Has Milady been... associating with those of little standing more often recently, without me knowing?"

"No, I never felt like it until today." That was probably even true. Still Kagome couldn't shake the feeling that every further word from her would make her all the more suspicious to her maid. The woman would most probably not suspect that her Lady's body had been taken over by the soul of her counterpart, but she'd most certainly jump to conclusions about her mingling with the common folks in a vain attempt at escaping some arranged marriage. Now if only there was a way of getting rid of her – well, she was a princess now, after all.

"Leave me alone now." Kagome cringed at her own harshness " Please. " she added.

"As Milady wishes." The maid stuck a last needle into her hair and moved away, towards the door. "He is a fine man." She said, just before the door closed behind her.

At the faint clicking noise Kagome released a sigh of relief. It seemed as if the simple act of leaving the estate, which no doubt, had to be the first step of any shard obtaining action, might prove to be close to impossible, at least for her. Maybe they should try sneaking away at night, if Inuyasha had found out anything useful already that is.

As if on cue someone knocked on her door.

"Kagome? Are you in there? I saw that stupid woman leave just now."

"Yeah, I'm here, come in."

The hinges of the door creaked and someone stepped in. "Jeez, I guess now the whole staff thinks the stable boy and the princess've got something going. You should've seen those people in the kitchen freak out on me after you left. Said I was gonna be beheaded 'n stuff. Your counterpart is gonna be married, did you know?"

"Yup." Kagome was strangely relieved to hear Inuyasha's – well not exactly voice, but unmistakable tone of voice. She'd been right about what she'd told him back in the other dimension. They really were each others only person to relate to.

"Well, but that's not all there is about it. Guess who's gonna be her beloved husband?"

"You mean... ?"

"Yup, the son of exactly that neighbour her father, _selon_ that son-of-a-bitch monk, loathes."

He'd moved across the room and was now standing somewhere to her left. She turned her head in that direction, still feeling obliged to face a person she was talking to, even if she was unable to actually see them. "But why would he do such a thing? Why marry his daughter to the son of his nemesis?"

"Well that's where things get interesting. I played dumb and asked the same back in the kitchens and they were all eager to explain. It seems as if the act of offering you as a bride is, despite the immense dowry, actually some kind of a subtle affront the other count simply can not counter without breaking the laws of the aristocratic code of behaviour."

"An affront?" Kagome asked although she had a feeling she knew what the explanation would be.

"Yeah, you know, with your counterpart being blind and being the youngest, actually too young to be married 'n stuff, she's not exactly a good catch, but it seems to be expected that the other guy takes the offer, 'cause there's no tangible proof that the offer is anything but a peace agreement. Insane if you ask me."

"The poor girl. Really, suffering from that kind of disability must be tough as it is, I'm sure it doesn't help her if the whole world makes her feel that she's worthless because of it."

Silence lasted a split second too long. "... I guess..." Was it her imagination and her over sensitized hearing or did Inuyasha sound a little strained?

Suddenly he spoke again, his tone determined.

"But that's none of our business anyway. Now about the shard..."

.At Kagome's suggestion they decided to indeed just sneak away as soon as everyone else was asleep, and try to get a first overview of their target county. Since it was, according to Inuyasha, only late afternoon, Kagome decided to catch a few hours of sleep in advance and Inuyasha guided her to her bed wordlessly.

"What are you gonna do in the meantime?" she asked, knowing already that he would most likely not even consider sleeping.

"I'm gonna make an appearance in the stables, I guess they're wondering where the stable boy is already, and I'm gonna try to find out more about our friendly neighbourhood count."

"OK, see you later then."

"Hm."

And as the door clicked shut behind him Kagome felt a little lost again. Not only was she blind and practically helpless, but she was now again an easy prey for all the things she didn't want to think about, even more so because of her lacking sight. So she lay on her bed and began to sing again, since that had worked the last time.

Thankfully sleep claimed her after a few songs, this counterpart really did not have an all too pleasant singing voice. But she woke up again after what felt like no more than half an hour, when someone knocked on her door.

"Yes?" she called.

"Palea? May I come in?"

"Who's there?"

The door hinges squeaked as the door was opened.

"It's me. Oh, have you been sleeping? I'm sorry, little one. Shall I come back later?"

Little one? Maybe that was her counterpart's older sister, the voice at least was that of a young woman. Well it couldn't hurt talking to her, she might know something useful about her counterpart's intended's family, after all.

"No, that's alright, come on in."

The door clicked shut, the swishing noises of heavy cloth swaying neared her and then her mattress bent as the woman sat down on her bed. A hand suddenly touched her cheek and it was all she could do to suppress the urge to flinch.

"How are you, little one? Anemonia told me that you visited the kitchens today? She said you might feel bad about that engagement..."

"Well... I don't really know him, don't know what he's like. Anemonia -" she assumed that was her maid's name, "said he was a fine man, but... "

"Well I know you only met him once, and he hardly said anything, but he didn't appear unfriendly or cold-hearted to me. Still... "

Suddenly the woman stood. "I still think it's unfair! You are hardly of the age to be married, father really should know better. And besides that, I can only begin to imagine how hard it will be to orient yourself in that completely strange castle." Her voice dropped and she sat down again. " My poor, beautiful little one, I understand if you feel trapped, I guess in your place I would try to break free in some way, too."

Wow. So her counterpart had a really nice and considerate sister, at least.

"But I hear you had a rather... dubious companion today. Palea, I have my severe doubts about that boy's intentions with you."

Whew, obviously Inuyasha's counterpart had some kind of a bad reputation along the female inhabitants of this estate. Still, she felt she had to defend him, the one to help her hadn't been him but Inuyasha after all. "Oh, no, it's not like he came up to me or anything, I asked him to help me and he complied."

"But what was he doing on this floor? I take it you met him here."

She'd actually 'met' him in her room but she best not tell her that. "I don't know really, I didn't question it."

"You see? Palea, please heed my advice as your sister, keep away from that boy, he knows no shame, that one."

It was actually getting more awkward by the second, having this conversation with a girl she barely knew but who at the same time thought she knew her very well. She couldn't possibly just send her away like she'd done with the maid, the woman was her counterpart's sister and a noblewoman just like her. Her excuse came when she was overwhelmed by a jaw splitting yawn.

"Oh, I'm sorry little one, I didn't mean to interrupt your sleep this long. I will go to bed early tonight, too. With the ball coming on in two days we will need all the energy we have." She stood. Then something moist brushed Kagome's cheek. "Sleep well, and think about what I told you, will you?" The swaying cloth retreated and she was gone .

Kagome reached up to touch her face. Why was it that since she'd started doing this dimension travelling all kinds of girls kissed her? ... or she kissed them. She felt her face heat at the thought.

When she said that the kiss had been her first she'd actually meant that it had been her first... French kiss. She had actually exchanged some chaste kisses with a boy she had a huge crush on when she was twelve, but after that her love life had been despairingly non-existent.

So being all of a sudden forced to share that first bout of actual intimacy with a stranger...ess came as a surprise and a wake up call to her dormant needs. Since then she found herself thinking of kissing more often, especially now, after all the allusions to Inuyasha's counterpart's womanizing antics... She wondered what he looked like, if he had women falling for him so easily. Well, she chuckled, he was the stable boy after all.

Kagome smacked herself over the head and twisted on her bed. What on earth was she thinking about again? Really, had she always been that easy to divert? Well, not that there were so many things she could be diverted from but still, this was most definitely not the time to be thinking about kissing. She buried her face in her cushions. Was it already dark outside? Would Inuyasha be coming soon to save her from her own rampaging thoughts?

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The hand that shook her awake probably meant that she had fallen asleep again. "Wake up woman!"

She opened her eyes – not that it made any difference- and pushed herself up. "Inuyasha?"

"Yeah, come on now, it's past eleven already and we'll need to be back before dawn."

She slid off the bed and turned into the direction of his voice. "So what else have you found out?" she asked as she carefully scooted towards him.

"Nothing all that helpful, I spent most of the time doing my counterpart's chores down in the stables. They wouldn't let me leave and since I figured that you wouldn't want me to screw up this lad's life I stayed and polished saddles."

"Wow, that's very nice of you." Really it was.

"Yeah, right, I just did it so we wouldn't have to waste our time here afterwards, 'righting the wrong' I've caused."

But he didn't sound all that convincing to Kagome. Maybe he really was some kind of a nice guy somewhere inside that shell off ill temper and aggression. A nice guy that would get himself killed to save a girl, Kagome reminded herself. And a nice guy who'd bring you chocolate, her empty stomach added.

"Ah, yeah, I figured you wouldn't have the opportunity to eat anything since you were sleeping all afternoon, so I took some bread from the kitchen." Half a loaf was dropped into her hands.

"Thank you!" She began munching it hurriedly.

"I also thought about our transport problem, but I think it'll be possible to borrow a horse for the night."

"Mpf." The bread was a bit dry but she wouldn't complain. She held some out to him. "Y'wntsme?"

"No." he continued outlining his thoughts. "What's left is the question of how we're gonna get to the stables without anyone seeing us. I can't guide you, that'd take too long."

Kagome swallowed. "Yeah, that's true." But she had no idea either.

Suddenly Kagome heard some shuffling and Inuyasha's scent got weaker. "Where are you going?"

"Just wait here for a second," he called from the other side of the room. Indistinguishable noises sounded from his direction.

"What are you doing?"

"You'll see."

A swishing noise was all that alerted her he was coming back again. She hadn't realized it consciously earlier, but he made absolutely no noises when he walked, his feet hardly seemed to touch the ground.

A draft of air told her that he'd walked around and was now standing directly behind her. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to figure out how to open that dress."

"What?" Kagome shot around. "Hentai! Has your counterpart rubbed off on you or what?"

"My counterpart? What are you- No! Whatever – No! I'm gonna carry you to the stables but this weak human body is in no condition to carry you in that gigantic dress for so long, So you'll need to change."

"... OK, but wait outside."

"Woman, I don't think you'll be able to dress alone without seeing anything." he paused. "In fact, I don't think these dresses are made to be put on alone anyway."

Damn it, he had a point. But still, it was a little suspicious how he seemed to find excuse after excuse to get her to take her clothes off... nah, she was just paranoid. "OK."

She hadn't realized how restricting the dress her counterpart was wearing was until Inuyasha managed to open her bindings and a deep breath rushed into her lungs almost on its own. "Whew, I can't imagine having to wear this every day! Don't these girls need to breathe from time to time?"

"It's not like they're working very hard - There, I think you should be able to take it off now."

As the layers of cloth dropped around her ankles she felt an inch taller immediately. Gods, it had to weigh a ton!

Inuyasha helped her put on something considerably lighter, a dress of some kind, and tied it, but considerably looser.

He took her onto his back and they rushed through the castle, wordlessly, down a seemingly incessant amount of stairs Kagome decided as her teeth rattled. She knew they were outside when a cool breeze brushed her bare legs, blew Inuyasha's hair into her face and pebbles crunched under his feet. They seemed to change directions quite often so Kagome guessed Inuyasha was running from shadow to shadow, but she didn't dare ask. The stables overwhelmed her with their intense smell and made her sway when Inuyasha set her down again. He caught her.

"Careful." he hissed. "I'll go fetch a horse, wait here for me."

Like she could actually walk away. Inuyasha wasn't gone for long anyway, and returned with an occasionally snorting horse. She was just wondering how on earth she was supposed to get onto it when a pair of hands grabbed her and lifted her up. Inuyasha settled her in front of him on the saddle-less back of the horse, reached around her, grabbing the reins most probably, and then suddenly the horse took off. They turned inside the stable and left it from the other side, fell into a slight trot at which Kagome tensed and struggled with her balance a little. She'd never seen a horse outside the TV, let alone ridden one. But she caught herself alright when she just leaned back against Inuyasha, who tensed but didn't complain.

They rode through the silent night, not that it wasn't night for Kagome night and day, for a while until Kagome got a little bored (officially at least, in fact she was just really unsettled by the constant play of muscles against her back).

"How come you know how to ride?"

"Huh?"

"Where did you learn to ride like that?"

"I didn't. I never sat on a horse before."

"What?"

"Keh! What would I need a horse for? I can run about five times as fast and for two days without pause, if necessary."

"You can?" Whew, she hadn't known hanyous had such stamina. Well she didn't know a thing about hanyous period. "But, then, why are we still riding this horse and not lying in the mud already?"

She felt him shrug. "I watched some people today, the commands are kinda self explanatory and the rest is balance."

Somehow Kagome envied his ability to adapt to his new bodies so fast. She always felt even clumsier than usual all of the time. 'Probably comes with that lifestyle of his.' she mused.

"Quiet now, I think we're just about to cross the boundary." Inuyasha whispered suddenly, the same time as the horse seemed to fall into a gallop.

"How can you tell? Kagome whispered back.

"Well -" He grabbed her by her waist and seconds later the horse tensed beneath them, then jumped. Kagome suppressed a squeal and pressed further into Inuyasha's chest. "They said the two counts were among other things quarreling about the fishing rights to this river that marks the boundary between their counties. I guess that was said river." Inuyasha finished with an audible smirk. Damn him for scaring her so!

He let go of her waist again as the horse slowed down. They rode in silence for a while until Kagome thought she sensed a presence before her eyes and reached up to investigate. Her hands met Inuyasha's arm.

"What are you doing?" she whispered.

"We're riding through a forest." he whispered back, in a way of answering her question.

"What does that have to do with your arm in front of my face?"

"Twigs?"

"Wha- ah. Thank you."

"Keh!"

Why was he being so nice to her since they'd entered the new dimension? ...maybe he sought to escape them talking things out that way... if he was, his plan was not all that bad, she felt rather reluctant to insist on it already. Well, if he was going to behave she would, too, and they might just really get along. Kagome allowed herself a little optimism.

Then the familiar tingling shook her mind. "I can feel the shard!"

"Figures. We're only another half hour away from the castle."

"Oh."

When the castle was in sight, Inuyasha insisted that they hide the horse somewhere and continue on foot, well, on Inuyasha's feet. The castle was, Inuyasha said, surrounded by a wall of insignificant height, at least to him, and he explained shortly later that they were going to climb over it here, in the shadow of a large building close to it on the inside.

He told her to hold on tight and really began climbing up the wall with her on his back, his almost artistic balance would never cease to amaze her, and they reached a small side door to what Inuyasha assumed was the main building, unseen and unheard. But the door was closed, as were all the other doors they were able to find. At least Kagome was able to distinctly determine where the shard was situated, it felt closest when they were at the back of the large house and seemed to be somewhere up high. As Inuyasha surprisingly agreed with her that trying to break into the house wasn't that much of a good idea, without proper equipment at least, he qualified, and so they left with not much except the knowledge that the castle at least wasn't thoroughly guarded.

Kagome fell asleep on the ride back to her surprise, but she blamed that on the lulling swaying of the horse's back. She didn't wake until Inuyasha shook her slightly, they were inside the stables again. He lead the horse back to where he'd taken it from and carried her up to her chamber wordlessly. He seemed a little subdued to her, not that she could have been too sure without seeing his face, but maybe he was, just like her, a little disappointed that Sango had been right about the approximate length of their stay. It seemed like it really was going to take them more time figuring out a way to get hold of that shard.

Inuyasha opened her door and set her down. He breathed in audibly.

"I'll be gone, see you tomorrow then"

"Yeah." Kagome half yawned.

Suddenly a different voice sounded from somewhere to her right. "Now this is interesting."

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A.N.: Hah! A whole chapter without Inuyasha getting hurt, that's a new one! I guess I have a sadistic streak I was unaware of before I started writing this...

So, me hopes you likes, and I'm lying in my bed every night whining for reviews, by the way... reviews make me happy and make me write happy chapters...

I had him use French again, somewhere around the middle he says '_selon_ that son-of..etc.', sorry couldn't help it, selon means 'according to'.

Oh and I have a request. As you might have realized reading this, I'm horrible at making up or finding good names for anything. Kagome's counterpart's name is a word I found in my Latin dictionary and it means chaff or straw, and for the weird last name if the other count I more or les just typed with my eyes closed and changed it around a little till it became pronounceable. So as to my request: Whenever any of you has a good idea concerning a name of any kind, male or female, and last names, too, just put it in your review or mail it to me if you can spare the time, that'd really help me a lot, pretty please!

And all my loving to my wonderful Mrs. Beta, Alvida, who puts up with my sloppiness and overall confusion, thanks a lot.


	10. Towers and Tree Houses

**A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale**

Chapter 8

Tall Towers and Tree Houses

Disclaimer: So, like, does Rumiko Takahashi happen to have a son roughly my age? ... probably not, which is why I will never own Inuyasha.

A.N.: I can't seem to reach Alvida, who beta reads my story, so this chapter is not seconded, which means: leave me alone about mistakes – or wait, don't, so I can correct them.

Anyway, as Inuyasha really wasn't hurt during the last chapter this one's the one to make up for it. And, dammit, did I get carried away!

And I'm being rather explicit about some things like throwing up and stuff, if that offends any of you, back off!

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No matter how he looked at it, there was no reasonable way to explain how the other man's presence had managed to escape his attention. It just wasn't like him to let his guard down like that. And it was most certainly pure coincidence that seconds before he'd taken a large sniff of the rooms scent... for some reason of absolutely no relevance except for a vague idea of calming himself down a little. Coincidence, yeah.

A suddenly lit candle and revealed the face of a mustached man sitting on a chair near the mirror. He was smiling but the flickering candlelight subtly changed his smile into a gruesome grimace. That, or he really was watching Inuyasha that murderously, he couldn't be too sure.

The man leaned back in his chair comfortably, placed his entwined hands on the slight bulge of his belly and set to speak in a cheerful and pleasant voice - that still had the hair on the back of Inuyasha's neck rise almost painfully.

"Let me tell you of my day young fellow," the man never took his eyes of Inuyasha, all but ignoring Kagome standing right beside him. "It looked promising all morning, you know, I lead a little fox hunt after breakfast and was back in time to enjoy lunch with my wife and my two beautiful daughters, then I had a long meeting with my housekeeper and my counselor, discussing some financial matters as well as the impending marriage between my house and that of my... dear neighbor. I was interrupted only shortly by the older of my daughters, but what she told me was quite alarming. She said that she feared her little sister was feeling forced into that marriage, was depressed about it. I cursed myself for my blatant ignorance of her feelings concerning that union and promised myself to visit her in her chamber after supper to have her shed some light onto the matter. But finding her fast a sleep I decided to return a little later, since she obviously had slept through supper and knowing my little one she'd wake up hungrily some hours later."

It wasn't until he said that that Inuyasha saw the plate standing on the drawer besides the man – who most probably was the Count of this castle and Kagome's counterpart's father. "Now imagine my surprise upon entering my daughter's chamber at half past eleven and finding it empty – except for the dress she'd worn today lying in a heap on the floor besides her bed. Imagine my surprise and my growing alarm upon finding out that she was nowhere to be found, not in the kitchens, not with her sister or her mother but that on a little prying on my side her sister admitted that our little one had been seen in dubious company today. Very dubious, for an innocent girl like her I dare say, dangerous company."

The count stood and walked over to them, positioning himself in front of Inuyasha who had to admit that he was a little intimidated – the count seemed to tower over him even though he was actually smaller. It must have been the overprotective father aura that did it to him.

"Now imagine my wrath, imagine my wrath upon then, after half a night of wait, having my little dearest stumble into her room accompanied by exactly the very dubious company I feared was bent on defiling her."

Should people that had just declared themselves insanely angry be smiling? Inuyasha wasn't sure, but he braced himself, just in case.

"And on top of that I find her dressed in nothing but a skimpy undergown and with a more than flushed complexion." He took another step closer, bringing his face closer enough to Inuyasha's than it deemed him acceptable but he stayed glued to the spot, even as the fake smile on the Count's face suddenly dropped and turned into a mask of pure ire.

"One reason, give me one reason why I should not have you whipped and beheaded for this outrage and I might decide that having your filthy tongue torn out will suffice." he snarled, all the while grabbing the collar of Inuyasha's shirt and shaking him.

Inuyasha found it hard to speak, but not for the reasons the count probably thought he did. It wouldn't take him more than a split second to effectively get rid of the count, grab Kagome and leave the whole goddamn castle to rot for all he cared, and he figured that there had been a time (Three days ago, to be precise) when he would have done so without hesitation.

But his conscience, or rather Kagome since she seemed to be so eagerly replacing his lacking one, was not only gnawing at the back of his mind and reminding him to consider the fate that their counterparts were to expect as soon as they would cluelessly gain control over themselves again, but also that a kidnapping of that kind might for some strange and very aristocratic reason be linked back to the other count, thus sparking off the expected feud. Not that he gave a damn, but Kagome would go apeshit on him about it and wouldn't rest until 'the wrong was righted', or even worse she'd, he shuddered involuntarily, start crying again.

The throttling increased as he refused to answer, and he was more or less about to just take a run for it without Kagome, when said girl, who had been watchi – no listening to the Count's speech in perplexed silence, suddenly screamed and hurled herself towards them, gripping her 'father's' arms, pulling at them.

"No, please father, he hasn't done anything wrong - " well, she was probably more used to dealing with fathers and the likes, perhaps she knew what to say to get them out of this situation. " at least nothing I didn't ask him to - " Or not. The grip on his shirt loosened at that, but Inuyasha cringed nonetheless. That couldn't possibly have come out any more wrong...

The count's reaction didn't come as much of a surprise.

"You what?", he interrupted her, "What did you ask him to – Palea! You – you – you are twelve for Olaon's sake, that is no age to be... and with that lowly scum of all – what on- "

But Kagome didn't appear to be intimidated one bit by his yelling, the opposite quite, she seethed visibly.

"So I'm of no age to be doing _that_ but without doubt of the perfect age to be married, even though, correct me if I'm mistaken, _that_ is one of the first matrimonial duties? Mind to elaborate, _father_!"

Wow, she really was getting better at the whole acting thing, although Inuyasha guessed that the outburst wasn't much of an act anyway, since waves of feminist indignation rolled off her as she glared into the vague direction of the count with her milky eyes. Oh and he was all to familiar with feminist indignation, having spend the late seventies and early eighties in Berlin and all.

The count sputtered with surprise, almost stumbled backwards at her reaction.

"_Palea!_ That is no way to be speaking with you father!"

"Well, marrying me off to some creep is no way to be treating your daughter!"

"What language Palea! What has gotten into you all of a sudden? I – you aren't yourself anymore!"

Now if only he knew how close to the truth he'd gotten with that comment. Inuyasha watched the exchange of yells with morbid fascination, dimly aware that he ought to have taken advantage of the count's obvious diversion and take his leave. But now it was too late, he realized as the count turned towards him again with renewed anger.  
"You! You have defiled my little doe girl!"

"He's got nothing to do with this!" Kagome roared almost, "This concerns me and you, not him!"

"Palea, he confused you, took advantage of your naivety and filled your little head with all the wrong ideas, and that is what makes you defend him now, I see that, but that doesn't make what he did any less punishable!"

Definitely not liking the course the conversation took Inuyasha started edging towards the door. It was obvious that the count wouldn't harm his own daughter, so he could risk leaving Kagome alone for a while. But the count's head snapped around as soon as he moved.

"GUARDS!" he hollered, and Inuyasha only managed a desperate dash for the door until the room was swamped by men in shiny armor. He took down at least half of them, but in the end their advantages overweighted his, and they beat him unconscious in front of the screaming Kagome, who was being restrained with quite some effort by her father.

In a strange attempt to console her he yelled "I'm alright, Kagome-" just when a particularly nasty blow hit his head and the black blanket of unconsciousness finally was draped over him. He would have laughed at the irony if not for the firework of pain that exploded all over his body that very moment, effectively keeping him from thinking anything besides 'Ouch!'. He only heard the count order "Take him to the cell!" and Kagome sob "Inuyasha!" before he passed out.

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'The cell' the count had him thrown in was really little more than that, a plain room that offered exactly enough space for him to lie on the ground with the skull shaking headache he'd woken up with. Trying to move as little as possible he glanced around in the dim light that shone through the small trellised window up in the wall opposite the door. He appeared to be lying on a heap of suspiciously moist straw that covered more than half of the room. In the far end he could make out some kind of bucket, and it didn't take a genius to guess its purpose by the smells that stretched their repelling, almost tangible tentacles towards him.

Finally fed up with the straw poking into his ear he sat up – which was not that much of a good idea since his stomach, traitorously siding with his concussed head, decided to remind him that it received quite some nasty punches not so long ago and spontaneously spilled its contents into the bucket that Inuyasha only just managed to reach for. When he was sure that there wasn't even an ounce of stomach acid left inside him he sat back, wishing that during the years he'd already spend throwing up at least once a week he'd gotten used to the taste and smell of it but that was probably as much of a unhealthy as of a disgusting thing to wish for. He wasn't bulimic after all.

He spend a while just staring ahead and recollecting his strewn about thoughts until a scraping sounded from the door and a ray of light cut through the half darkness.

"You awake in there?"

Inuyasha glared at the guard that peered through the window in the door and didn't grace him with an answer since that much should have been obvious.

"Hungry?"

Hell yeah! He he'd thrown up what he felt had been a weeks worth of food, of course he was hungry. But pride forbade to even acknowledge the man. Stupid pride.

"Well, anyway..."

Something hard hit his head making it explode again for what it felt like and this time pride just sat and whistled in feigned innocence while he failed to suppress a very undignified hiss of pain. The object the guard had thrown at him turned out to be a piece of bread that was so hard he had to soak the edible bits, that weren't very numerous to begin with, in his saliva to be able to nibble on them. But he wouldn't complain, mainly because he was really awfully hungry and also because there was no one in reach to complain to. He figured that getting up was out of question as long as his head hurt the way it did, he wasn't all that versed in human healing but with the blows he'd received it was best to be careful, he knew that much. So he sat and watched the light grow stronger as morning dawned.

The pain in his limbs numbed to a bearable, or ignorable more like, level rather quickly - two centuries of training had to pay off in some way some day - and when the first rays of the sun found their way through the small window, Inuyasha estimated that it had to be late morning by then, he was able to move his head and not feel like he was being hit by a jackhammer. When he considered his constitution improved enough he pulled himself up, the primitive masonry came in quite handy, and, after a moment he granted his circulation to start working properly again, searched the room for a way out.

But the window was not only probably too small for him to fit through, there was also no way he'd be able to move the sturdy looking bars out of the way in less then a weeks work with noting but the handle of a bucket as a tool. Inuyasha sighed and wished for what he felt was the thousandth time that he still had his own body. With hanyou strength ripping the bars out would have been a matter of seconds, in fact, he could just as well have walked straight through the wall. But it couldn't be helped and so he turned towards the door instead.

The flap that covered the opening in the door could be shoved aside from the inside, too, but while he might have, with enormous effort, somehow been able to squeeze through the window in the wall if it weren't for the bars there was no way he'd manage to stick more than his head through the window in the door. Alarmed by the screeching of the flap the second factor that would make an escape from his prison even harder stood from his chair left to the door and stepped in front of him.

"What is it?" he asked suspiciously.

Well, now that he was alerted anyway, he might just as well pry a little information out of the guard, Inuyasha reasoned.

"So what are you guys gonna do to me?" he asked nonchalantly.

The guard quirked an eyebrow at his tone – or at the question.

"I guess that depends on the results of the inquiry that's going on down there right now - " he indicated the castle beneath them with a downward movement of his head.

"Inquiry?"

"Or should I say, examination? You know... his Lordship has the maid check how much.. harm you've done his daughter."

Inuyasha couldn't quite fight the blush that rose to his face at the guards implications, which was ridiculous 'cause he'd done nothing worth blushing, and sure as hell nothing that actually justified all the fuzz the count seemed to be causing.

The guard took his red face as the clear sign of a guilty conscience. He shook his head.

"Boy, really, you're insane if you thought you'd get away with that. What on earth has gotten into you? The maids, alright, I understand that, can't say I didn't have one or another of them neither, but his Lordship's daughter, for Olaon's sake!"

"But I didn't -" Inuyasha rolled his eyes at his own stupidity. Why did he feel the urge to defend himself against the accusation of having done something like that with Kagome? Or rather - and that was probably the whole explanation - having done something like that _to_ Kagome? Somehow his thoughts shied away at the sole idea, like it was a sacrilege to even consider it, and it had little to do with the fact that she was currently inhabiting the body of an estimated twelve year old brat. Inuyasha shrugged these thoughts off but they lingered in the back of his mind, surfacing occasionally, especially after the guard had lost interest and left him to ponder whilst returning to the much more pleasant task of cutting his fingernails with a knife.

His still very battered body solved the thinking problem after a while though, when exhaust overcame him he fell asleep before he was able to blush yet again at the unbidden direction said thoughts had taken after a while.

He cursed human healing – for what he felt was the thousandth time on this mission – when he woke up just as the last sun rays made the humid air outside the window glow a dim orange and found that his head still hurt like a, albeit slightly smaller, bitch as did the rest of him. And the rate at which his circulation was setting to work properly again was just as ridiculous. He cussed as black dots danced before his eyes to remind him that he best not try getting up that fast again anytime soon. He dragged himself over to the window and pulled himself up to peer though the bars – not an overly clever idea either but he managed.

By what he recalled of the castle's architecture he figured that he was being held captive inside the tall square tower at the eastern side of it, the one that didn't quite fit with the fancy and playful style of the rest. He eased down and sat on the straw pile again, closing his eyes to better visualize the tower. He was pretty much at the top of it, that much was clear, and on the side facing away from the main building. There had to be several cells such as this one 'cause he remembered the walls of the tower being aligned with windows such as that one.

Sadly that information wasn't worth the braincells he spend recollecting it since he hadn't even figured out a way past either the bars or the guard. Inuyasha groaned in frustration and leaned his head back against the wall - carefully, he'd learned his lesson by now. His thoughts were winding down paths of little pleasantry, inexplicably leading from a rant about the uselessness of human bodies to the familiar rant on the uselessness of hanyou existence, and just when he was about to conclude something along the lines of 'screw this, you're gonna die one of these days anyway, so why not here?' suddenly the thundering of boots drew nearer and after a few muffled words a key was being shoved into the keyhole of the door. Inuyasha stood in the far corner of the room, ready to dash for the door at the first opportunity when the Count stepped in. He let his eyes wander around the cell with what Inuyasha assumed was deliberate slowness designed to put him off, and even that knowledge hardly prevented him from sighing impatiently. Then the Count focused on him.

"I don't know whether it was a thread of honor that is bound to be found somewhere inside even one such as you that kept you from it or just sheer luck that I intervened before you were able to go along with your most dishonorable plans, either way, I have not found with my daughter's constitution a reason for me to have you beheaded. And rest assured - " he leaned in as if conveying a secret to a friend, "I was more than thoroughly tempted to do so in spite of it. But alas, your blatant disrespect of my person can not and will not go unpunished."

Inuyasha had to bite back a sour laugh. So it was a disrespect of the Count's person if he did his daughter, not a disrespect of her feelings or anything. That hypocrite, what had he said? He berated himself for his blatant disregard of her feelings? Yeah right. Not that Inuyasha had ever really understood what all the feminist fuzz was about, but there was only so or so much discrimination against supposed minorities that he could stand – for understandable reasons. The count was oblivious to that train of thought, obviously, he probably though that he bit his lip out of fear of the oncoming punishment. Like he gave a shit about that, he'd be out of here before it, that's what he told himself at least.

"I'm going to have you whipped and expelled from my lands." the Count explained with an expression not too far from amusement. That prick. But as Inuyasha refused to react, what was there to react to, anyway, his half smile faded and he turned to leave. Not intending to give away that perfect opportunity Inuyasha dashed froward as soon as the Count's eyes left him, shoved him aside and stumbled out into the narrow corridor, slamming the door shut behind him. He was surrounded by the numerous guards that had accompanied the Count but as the walls were too close for two men to stand beside one another that was hardly a problem. He drew back his fist and broke a nose, at the same time digging his heel into an uncovered groin. Of what worth was tacky armor if it didn't cover the essential parts?

Right now, which way was the way out? He tried to peer around the guards struggling to get past their colleagues that were busy doubling over, but they blocked the view so he could only guess. Seeing as the one whose nose he broke was regaining composure already he jumped onto the poor fellow with the squished family jewels, using him as leverage to hurl himself halfway over the man behind him and grab the torch holder attached to the wall to pull himself further. The torch came loose and that was not a bad thing, as soon as his feet met the ground he shoved the third guard aside with it. The last one of them did not need as much persuasion, must've been afraid of fire that one, and Inuyasha broke into a desperate run that ended all to soon at the next corner where he spotted stairs that lead... upwards.

'Fuck.'

But his headache was back full force, the torch in his hand trembled, so turning back and getting past all those guards was out of question. He sprinted up higher into the tower. The pounding behind him told him that they had set off to corner him somewhere up there, seeing as he was running into an obvious dead end, and that made him speed up even as black dots danced before his eyes. Why oh why wasn't his counterpart a hanyou, too, he usually got over concussions even faster than over deep cuts and those were hardly a bother either. It was rather ironic that he now wished to have the body he'd meant to get rid of his whole life, but it was just his luck that he didn't have it now that he needed it.

They'd imprisoned him in a cell on the second highest floor, obviously, cause the stairs lead into an unused room that was actually nothing but the space under the four sided pyramid that formed the roof of the tower. A dead end, indeed. But the sound of the charging guards fueled his already battle mode quickened reaction rate on even further and so he took the only other option that was left: he began breaking his way through the roof. It was a pity – for the count, if he'd been the one to decide that – that the roof was not made of wood or straw but of more modern roof-tiles, which left exactly enough room between the rafters for a slender enough person to squeeze through. He was busy doing just that when he heard his persecutors come stumbling over one another into the room and he couldn't help but stick his head back in and grin before he slid down the roof.

Dangling from the rim he realized the obvious flaw in his improvised plan, though. If his arms were hardly able to support his very own body weight, then how on earth was he supposed to climb down the whole tower with them? And the headache and nausea did not exactly make feeling around for a elevation somewhere below him with his feet any easier. When he was about to just let go and hope for a conveniently placed straw or even muck heap his bare toe suddenly caught on the upper part of the window frame below him.

Surprised that he passed the first window unharmed he still avoided the rest of them on his way down, he wasn't going to risk suddenly being pulled inside by some guards that had done some fast thinking. But he was the one to talk, thinking was not exactly running smooth for him either, hadn't it been for the arrow that suddenly clattered against the stones beneath him he would never have considered the possibility that the lack of guards inside the tower might just be explained by the fact that they were awaiting him outside. Deciding that a break to think was overdue he clung to the wall and waited for his brain to do something besides wailing in agony.

What to do now?

He tried to visualize the mental map of the castle he'd drawn the other day and wanted to kick himself for not thinking of that earlier. The tower was connected to the main building right around that corner to his left. He was about to head that way when suddenly the fingers of his right hand unclenched. He just barely managed to catch himself, breaking a toe nail in the process. So they'd called the crossbow shots, he mused, remembering the short thick bolt that he'd seen falling down again after leaving a none too nice cut on his forearm in it's wage. His wound was just oozing enough blood to make the use of his arm increasingly difficult, but it couldn't be helped. The bolt raining splinters of stone onto him as it hit the wall above his head urged him on as he scrambled sidewards. But he had been right, the building really met the wall of the tower around that corner, that at least.

His body threatened to flee into unconsciousness as soon as his behind hit the ridging but he dug his fingers into the wound on his arm to prevent that. He couldn't pass out until he'd left the castle grounds and found a good hiding place somewhere. If he died now, Kagome would never be able to get that shard on her own, seeing as she couldn't even see, so he had to keep on going, it couldn't be helped.

He tried standing but his legs just gave away, and so he started scrambling along the rooftop towards the part where the building was connected to the surrounding wall.

And what a surprise, suddenly his pride was back and bitingly commented on how this had to be the most undignified flight he'd pulled in his life, and yeah, about that, since when did he flee instead of facing his opponents like a real hanyou, anyway? But it couldn't fucking be helped.

Was that going to be the motto of this evening? It can't be helped? Pain and exhaust were driving him to the brink of madness, the brink where you are so desperate for a distraction that you stumble into ridiculous self conversations, obviously, but he had to keep on scrambling, it couldn't be helped after all. Wasn't it, now that he thought about it, really the leitmotiv of his life? He would have liked to play with the other children, but he was to strong for them, he'd hurt them for sure, it couldn't be helped. He would have liked to just be with... her and don't give a damn about anything else but she had a responsibility and he was scum, so no, it couldn't be helped. And he would so have wanted to lead a normal life after the ban, find a girl to spend longer than a night with but hey, he was a freak of nature, it couldn't really be helped.

The arrows and bolts that clattered onto the very part of the roof he was headed to ripped him out of his rant. It seemed as if they had guessed what he was up to. He dropped onto his stomach and tried to think. He couldn't possibly stay here in the castle, could he? But squinting his eyes a little he thought he could make out a ladder being leaned against the wall, so they were going to intercept him on his way out.

How he ended up there of all places was a bit of a puzzle to him, but in the retrospective the idea, or the reflex rather, hadn't been all that stupid. They really weren't going to expect him inside Kagome's counterpart's room, at least he hoped so. He'd slid down the roof when he was right atop her chamber and clumsily landed on the windowsill. Peering inside he saw no one but her, sitting in a chair and staring off into space with an expression of deep sorrow. His hand trembled as he lifted it to knock. It took her a while and some persistent knocking on his side to lead her to the window but she opened it at last.

"Inuyasha?" he heard her ask timidly.

But he never got to answer her. He just fainted to her feet.

OOO

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He awoke to complete darkness and thought he had to have been out of it for quite a while but the darkness was just a little too constricting and... fluffy? Carefully squirming he came to the conclusion that he had to be lying under a thick blanket of some kind and shoved it off. With the oxygen came the memory and he bolted up as he recalled the imminent danger he was still in. But getting up fast was still as much of a bad idea as it had been all day and the foul bread he'd forced down a while ago changed its mind about being digested.

"Are you sick?" Kagome asked as he began to sweat with the effort not to puke his guts out right in front of her.

"Hrgm!" he grunted, unable to open his mouth.

"Ah, wait there must be ..." she ducked under the bed and felt around for something, then came up with a ... night pot. "I haven't used it yet it's-" she started but he just ripped it from her and did what his body demanded, turning away from her even though she couldn't actually see what he was doing anyway. Warm and slightly damp hands softly grazed his forehead and proceeded to hold back the hair that had long ago fallen out of the leather strap the nape of his neck. He was too surprised to shrug her off so he grabbed the hanky she was offering and jumped off the bed as soon as his stomach was empty to make up for it. Then he spilled the offending contents of the pot out of the window that Kagome seemed to have left open.

"You ok now?"

He had actually planned to ignore Kagome until he felt like he was able to look at her again after that embarrassing lapse right in front of her but the unmasked concern in her voice had him reconsider.

"Yeah, think so. Concussions and jailbreaks just don't mix very well, you know." he said in a lame attempt at an excuse.

"Yup, I know. My brother once had a concussion, too, and he kept on throwing up for days." she shrugged and scrambled off the bed. "Jailbreak? So they had you imprisoned and you fled? And those wounds?"

Only when she mentioned them he realized that his wounds had been bandaged with what looked like stripes of a white bed sheet. Oh, and what was that? He hadn't even been aware that he'd scraped his knees, too, but they were wrapped in white cloth just like his forearm and toe.

"I got them while fleeing. You know, they had crossbows an' stuff. But nevermind me, did they hurt you?" She didn't look hurt but without his usual nose he couldn't be sure. And what that guard had implied they'd done ... sure didn't sound like a pleasant affair to begin with.

"No, they didn't hurt me but... " she blushed, "they -"

" - Looked whether I ... this counterpart of mine _harmed_ you, I know. That count's nothing but a sonofabitch, really. Well, as long as it's only your dignity that got a little demolished I won't complain."

"Excuse me? It was more than my dignity that suffered back there! I feel violated! If they'd only looked, but no, they – ah forget it!" she folded her arms, blush ten folding.

Right. Not that he couldn't sympathize, he'd killed people for less as far as he recalled, but here was most definitely no time to contemplate such petty things now, he still needed to make a quick disappearance after all. So he glanced out of the window into the darkness enveloping the castle grounds. He could make out quite a few guards patrolling the outer wall and the court, more than there had been the night before, which meant that they knew he was still hiding somewhere inside the castle. But he was quite rested now, the headache was _almost_ gone, the wounds were bandaged and his hands - he glanced down at them – nope, didn't shake anymore. No reason to stick around another second. He hopped onto the window frame.

"I'll be gone then." he announced.

"Wha -What!" Kagome who had been busy mumbling and blushing perked up and stepped closer. "You're leaving? Where to? And in that state you're in? Are you nuts?"

"They'll find me eventually and I really don't need any beheading anytime soon, even if I'm probably not going to die from it, no thanks. So I'll leave now, find somewhere to stay and hide, and then I'll find a way to contact you and we'll see about that shard. Sound good?"

"NO!"

... that girl, why did she _always_ have to antagonize him? His plan was not even a plan, it was the logical reaction to the circumstances they found themselves in, what other options where there, anyway?

"Take me with you."

Ah. Well...

"No fucking way!"

"But why not?"

"Why not! I don't even know how to get out of this goddamn castle alone, how on earth am I supposed to do that with a blind brat in tow?"

"But I don't want to stay here, alone..."

Ah, so that was what this was about. But still, it was just not possible to take her along without gravely endangering her and their mission.

"Well, tough, I'm still gonna have to leave you here for the time being, you're safe here, no one's after your head or something, and there's regular food and stuff, all of which you will have quite a hard time finding in the woods, and that's where I'm headed now."

He turned on the frame and slipped onto the outer windowsill. Now, which way was the preferable way out? Should he try the roof or the ground -

"Please take me along? I'll promise I'll - "

Oh fuck. Was that the voice of a girl about to cry? He had to get away before he turned into helpless putty in his attempts to keep her from crying. Fleeing over the roof hadn't worked the last time so the ground it was. He grasped the sill and swung himself down.

"I'll find a way to contact you, then we'll get that shard." he promised more to muffle the guilt screaming at him to move his ass back up there and take her along than to reassure her.

The window slammed shut and he couldn't help but flinch, she was obviously not too please- ack! His right hand had suddenly almost unclenched again, the wound still seemed to be getting to it. 'Alright', he ordered himself, 'stop thinking about that wench now and start thinking about a way to get out of this goddamn castle unseen and unharmed!'

And miraculously he did just that. Trying to escape on the ground instead of over the roof had been the better idea after all, the court of the castle offered enough hiding places and covers for him to easily sneak past the guards, not to forget that he was still the incarnation of everything stealthy and graceful. He almost snickered to himself as he found a part of the defensive wall that was partially hidden in the shadow of the tall stable building and climbed over it within less that a minute. The soft grass surrounding the castle grounds pillowed his fall when he just jumped down from the wall and he let himself roll down the gentle slope until he reached some bushes. There he hid to catch his breath and force back all the signs his body send to tell him to rest for an estimated week. No time for that now.

He got to his feet and scurried through the bushes until he reached the much safer shadows of the small forest ahead. The forest was nothing but a small lengthy piece of wilderness left between two large fields of rape, not exactly the best of shelters, and so he climbed a tall tree to get an overview of the country. Climbing was not an action his beyond worn out arms and shoulders approved of but he had failed to memorize the landscape yesterday night, he'd been too occupied... making sure that Kagome, like... didn't fall off the horse... or something, and so he didn't have much of a choice.

He had to have spent quite a few hours unconscious in Kagome's bed, 'cause morning was already dawning when he reached the crown of the tree. The lands surrounding the castle of that charmer of a Count mainly consisted of fields and small assemblies of huts, too little in number to be considered villages, and the only thing that remotely reminded Inuyasha of a forest was the one they had rode through the other day, but that was a good two or three hours away – if you had a horse, which he had not. Then again, sooner or later he was going to have to move in that direction anyway, the shards were after all still inside the other Count's castle. So he slid off the tree and started walking.

He wandered all day, through woods and fields, avoiding the official paths and streets, and reached the woods a while after sunset. To say that he was not in the best of states was an obvious euphemism, he felt he was going insane from hunger and his head had yet to stop aching, his wounds hurt, he was limping because of the ripped off toenail and every muscle in his body felt like it was afire. Still, he dragged himself into the inner regions of the forest until he found a cozy looking shelter under the roots of a fallen tree, where he curled up and fell asleep, really asleep, not unconscious, so fast that the pictures never stood a chance and had to grudgingly wait for another time to haunt him.

He woke when the morning bird concert reached its crescendo, blinking and stretching, and crawled out of his little den. The weakish sun hardly found a gap in the thick foliage above and Inuyasha was shivering in the chilly, moist air, so he looked for a clearing where he could warm up a little before he busied himself finding some food. He settled for fish - it was no wonder the Counts were quarreling about the fishing rights to that river, it was so full of fish that it took Inuyasha little more than a minute to catch one with his bare hands.

After three fish and a little nap in the warm midday light he finally felt up to going about the plan he'd developed yesterday, on his way to the forest, a plan that he still thought to be rather cunning, even though it was the product of a headache martyred and hunger driven mind. On a second thought, seeing as planning actions had never been his forte, maybe that plan was good _because _it was painborne...

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"Sorry lad, we got a stable boy, an he's doin' his job alright, don't need a second one, no."

The elderly stable master patted his shoulder apologetically. "But I heard that Fantenborough over there needs one. Had some trouble with the one he used to have." he snickered.

There was actually no way he could have known about that, but rumors where the only thing that moved faster than light, you didn't have to live 200 years to realize that.

Inuyasha, far from giving up yet, casually leaned against the wall of the stable besides him. "I only need that job for a few weeks or so, just to gain a little money so I can continue... Westwards." he explained, making up some reason as he spoke.

"Well, I told you, there's nothing we can do for you. Staff's complete, we don't -" suddenly a boy of about fourteen came running around the corner and interrupted him.

"Master! Otior he - " the boy put his hands on his knees and caught his breath before he continued, "he broke his arm, said he fell, he's lying back there, and his nose is broken too, or something, it's bleeding, come, quick!"

"By Olaon, the poor sod!" the stable master hurried off, then stopped and turned around again.

"Stay right there, boy, " he said, "Otior, he's my assistant, and if he really broke his arm we might need a stable boy after all. You're lucky."

Inuyasha nodded and restrained his smirk until the man had disappeared behind the corner. Lucky, indeed...

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Being a stable boy was actually hard work, but Inuyasha didn't mind hard work, he was more like born for it. It kept you occupied and kept you from feeling lonely or guilty, cause you left a certain someone behind. Well, and his schedule still wasn't as tight that he didn't have enough time to do a little spying.

He still remembered where Kagome had said the shard was situated and that room turned out to be the bedroom of the Count's son, the sucker Kagome's counterpart was supposed to marry.

It was also good to know that his death threads still held as much conviction as they had around five hundred years ago, the former stable boy, Otter or whatever his name was, visibly bleached every time they crossed paths and had obviously not told anyone about their little encounter. Gee, he almost felt bad about the whole ordeal now, maybe he'd overdone things a little. But that had to be his Kagome induced conscience speaking. Inuyasha, after all, was just lacking the heart to feel bad about breaking whiny stable boy's arms

But apart from a little conscience nagging things were actually looking good for once, with the single exception that he had absolutely no idea how to go about the part where he was supposed to contact Kagome. He couldn't possibly go back to the castle when the count still was after his head – or other irreplaceable parts of him – and there was no frequent communication between the two counties so writing a letter or stuff like that was pretty much out of question, too. On the other hand his employment here offered just too many brilliant opportunities at getting his hands on that shard to just waste them by quitting.

But that problem solved itself five days later, when the stable master suddenly came up to him and asked for a word in private. Inuyasha followed him into the saddle chamber worriedly, was it possible that the other stable boy had opened his mouth after all? But the elderly man put an amicable hand on his shoulder as soon as he'd closed the door behind them.

"Boy, I've been doing some thinking and – you are the former Fantenborough stable boy, aren't you? You, uhm, seduced his daughter and - "

"I did not!" Inuyasha, who had been occupied squirming out under the unwelcome hand on his shoulder, interrupted irritably and clamped his mouth shut directly afterwards. That was as good as an open admission. But he just couldn't stand people implying that he'd done... that to Kagome. It just wasn't right or something, not that he was all that well acquainted with moral standards and stuff, but even to him it was obvious that goodhearted, albeit slightly annoying, purity such as Kagome did not mix very well with despicable scum like him.

"'S alright, lad, no one's onto you 'cept me, and I don't give a damn, believe me, I was just going to tell you that the Fantens are coming over as an exchange for the ball they held the day before yesterday, and you might wanna avoid Lord Fantenborough recognizing you."

"Well thanks I guess." Inuyasha said uncomfortably. Then, struck by sudden inspiration, he asked, "Is his daughter coming along?" and mentally scolded himself for that one again.

The stable master shot him a calculating look. "Why do you want to know? Don't tell me you're love sick." he shook his head. "Let me hand you this little piece of advise, boy, that girl is way out of your depth. Stick with your own kind and you'll fare well enough. I heard there's this maid who's got quite the crush on you, you know, that's were your future lies, concerning women, if you know what I mean, not with the Nobles. But to answer your question, yes, I think she's coming along, seeing as she's _promised to our Lordships son_ and all."

With a last pat on Inuyasha's back he moved towards the door.

"Heed my advise, don't let yourself be seen around today, they should be arriving around three in the afternoon."

Inuyasha couldn't believe his luck. There he'd been, whacking his brain for some way to contact Kagome and get her over here and now she was coming on her own. Were they going to seize that Shikon no Kakera today or what? He left the saddle chamber and left for the main building to sneak a look at the large clock that hung over the fireplace in the ballroom. It was half past twelve now, so he had another two and a half hours to come up with a genius plan how to catch Kagome alone and take her to the room of that sucker of a successor to have her do the freaky thing that would get them out of this stink hole of a dimension and him one step closer to whatever he would decide his reward was going to be.

Sadly that line of thoughts inspired a whole other line of thoughts that had little to do with his devious plans and a lot with that reward. Thanks to that stupid, greedy and easily sidetracked hanyou mind of his he had only gotten past the 'So I cause, like, a diversion of some kind and snatch her.' part when he heard a guard announce the arrival of the visiting party. Damn! Not surprising since his brain really only ever seemed to work when he was hurt, in danger or drunk, but still, damn!

He hurried down to the kitchens where the Nobles where least likely to stumble across him, and busied himself with some vegetable hacking, which was usually a good way to get a second breakfast, and some little before and after supper snacks as well as, most importantly, access to the counts booze chamber, he'd found that out on his first day here. The cook kinda seemed to have a weak spot for hard working young men...

Now that he thought about it, wasn't that look he was giving him a little on the creepy side? He squirmed uncomfortably and send a few pieces of carrot flying when he brought the knife down harder than necessary. Needless to say, he was still not coming up with a plan how to go about the whole diversion deal, although he figured that there simply was no good way to go about it. Still, he was running out of time.

And so, in the end, he just sneaked up to the room where the shard was, taking utmost care to avoid the dining room where he supposed the Count was entertaining his guests. Maybe it was unlocked today, or something, and he'd just have to find the shard and then kidnap Kagome. That would have been easier than snatching her, bringing her up to that room and then hiding them both somewhere for as long as it took her to fuse with the shard. But he had, of course, no such luck.

A slightly muffled, feminine scream resounded through the corridor when he was just about to round the last corner, and he recognized the voice immediately.

'Kagome?'

He sped up and slithered past the large vases lining the door to the Count's son's bedroom. Another scream that was interrupted by a dull sound of some kind came through the thick wood and he tried the handle. But it was locked, quelle surpise. Not a problem that couldn't be solved with a single forceful kick, though. Inuyasha hurried through and found exactly what he'd feared was going on. Kagome was lying on a bed, tears streaming down her face, and a young man was standing right beside it, looking ready to pounce on her. Inuyasha closed the door behind him to block out the noises of what was bound to happen. That had to be the sucker her counterpart was going to marry. He was quite the looker, but his head still needed only one brief encounter with the handy wooden bedpost to be switched off. Inuyasha turned his attention to Kagome, who sat on the bed, trembling and feeling around helplessly with her hands.

"What's going on?" She closed her blind eyes and frowned. "Inuyasha?"

"Yeah. Now what was - "

He stumbled backwards when she flung herself against him. She clutched him tightly and he was at a little bit of a loss of what to do, except maybe get those arms to move and hug her back? But he did not quite feel as daring today, and so he settled for a noncommittal hand on her shoulder.

"I was so afraid." , she finally begun explaining herself, "He said they caught and killed you, I did not believe him at first, but when I didn't hear of you for days I thought that – Don't. Don't just don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't ever do that again, don't leave me alone again."

Her voice was desperate, and her tone implied a depth of emotion, of longing perhaps, that Inuyasha didn't not wish to be the source nor the subject of. Although he knew he was probably over interpreting things he felt a blush rise and was, for the first time in this dimension, glad that she couldn't see.

"It's ok, what are you getting so worked up about anyway? Even if I had died, well, ok, you'd have had to get that jewel shard alone, but that wouldn't have been impossible or anything, just... harder?"

She shook her head, or tried to, but with her face pressed to his chest that was close to impossible. "It's not about the shards, it's about being alone! I, I can't even see what is going on, and the count had me more or less grounded for the whole time, I was this close to just going insane!"

Which was exactly why he'd felt so guilty about leaving her behind. She had this tendency of thinking sad things when she was left in peace for too long, at least from what he'd gathered about her so far.

"I told you we are each others only persons to relate to. I didn't realize how lonely it makes you to be different, when there's no one around that understands about you, about what you are."

... story of his life, now, wasn't it?

"Look, " he said, untangling himself from her, "I just didn't have a choice. I had to get the hell out of there and couldn't take you along. And now what was - "

"I'm not completely helpless, I'm sure I could have come along somehow."

"You are blind damnit! I would have had to carry you, and I was hardly able to carry myself! Look, woman, we can discuss this later, but couldn't you just get us out first?"

"Yeah right!", she folded her arms and send a stern glare towards something besides right ear. "That's what you said last time, but I haven't seen us talking about anything by now!"

"Yeah, but I mean it this time!" ...whatever, "Just get that shard and do the creepy stuff already."

"Fine! But this is not over yet."

She stomped past him and towards rather girly looking shelf, pulled it open and felt around for a while. Just when she turned triumphantly the door behind them opened. Inuyasha spun around.

"Now this is interesting."

The Count stood in the doorway, smiling that I'm-livid-with-rage-but-to-high-and-mighty-to-let-it-show smile of his.

"There I go, looking for my little darling daughter and whom do I find her with? Tsk, tsk. After that quite impressive stunt you pulled when you fled I would have thought you had more common sense than to - "

Inuyasha groaned as the count rattled down his speech. It had been rather intimidating the first time but the second time around it really only got on his nerves. So he ignored him and grabbed the squealing Kagome, hurled her onto his shoulder and shoved the Count aside as he stumbled through the door. He hurried down the corridors back through the kitchens and all but teleported them into the saddle chamber. That would have to do as a hiding place for as long as it took Kagome to fuse with the shard.

"Alright, woman, go ahead. We'll be safe here for a few minutes."

But the girl frowned and let her blind eyes roam around the room.

"I don't think we should leave already."

"Why the fuck not!" he asked, although he already had his suspicions.

"Well, if we leave these bodies now, they're not going to know they'll have to flee and they'll be caught, and your counterpart will - "

"Yeah, I get it. That righting the wrong we've caused stuff again." He rubbed his temples. Was that just annoyance, or was his headache returning? "Seeing as I can't make you get us out of here, what do you suggest we do?"

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"You're insane, you're aware of that, right?" Inuyasha complained as he wound the self made rope over and under the branches. "Apart from the fact that your ideas are idiotic and never going to work out, why is it that I always end up doing all the work, huh?"

"Well, if my plan is that stupid, do you happen to have a better idea? Kagome snapped up from her perch on a fallen tree.

"In fact, I do:" Inuyasha jumped off the tree after tying the knot and jabbed a finger at her hand that was holding the Shikon no Kakera. "Fuse with that thing and get us out!"

"Not until you've build this tree house, I won't!" she huffed and crossed her arms, easily guessing what he meant even if she couldn't see what he was pointing at.

Oh that too stubborn and too nice for her own good girl, why did everything have to depend on her these days? If he didn't need her to get him out of this dimension he so would have left her to wither her the second she told him her genius plan. Yeah... probably. Anyway. She still was fucking nuts!

"Woman, it's just not going to help them any. I mean, it's not like I don't realize that heir lives are a tad on the screwed up side, with the count being after my head and stuff, but just imagine, you're waking up in a forest, have no idea where you are, or why you're there, next you realize that you're not alone, but that there's the stable boy or the princess with you for reasons none of you can even begin to understand, and look, what's that? The other person is telling you to stay put and spend your life in that forest or move to another county but never ever, under any circumstances, return to your home again. And seconds later he or she doesn't have a clue about what they just said. They're so going to believe that shit, sure, why not."

Too bad he'd already spend the rest of yesterday and all morning saying just that, now his words hardly had any impact on Kagome other than making her jut her lower lip forward a little more. She had, after all, spend just as much time explaining that they at least had to try.

And so he grudgingly returned to the maddeninglyfiddly task of building a stable enough tree house out of scratch.

"If that teaches us anything it's that we're going to have to be much more careful next time around. And that we just need to _know_ more about the dimensions we're entering. We should spend more time gathering information about our counterparts and act accordingly, you know? We _could_ have considered the fact that a stable boy and a princess aren't really supposed to spend time around one another." Kagome said after a while.

"Whatever." They were wasting time, either way. Why did she give a damn about people she'd never even get to know?

He worked all midday and afternoon, taking only a short break to eat some of the food he'd snuck out of the kitchens before they'd left the castle for good. But building a tree house was one thing, building one that was supposed to serve as an actual home for one, maybe even two people was another. You didn't do that in just a day. That girl, really...

Well it was, in way, flattering that Kagome seemed to have that much trust in his abilities to do that kind of thing but still, the plan itself was plain nuts! And he was rapidly growing sick of it, too. He eyed the roof of more than questionable waterproofness and the walls that shook with every step he took on the floor that was the only part he'd spend a little effort on. It was going to take him at least another day, probably more to finish this... unless... she _was_ blind, wasn't she?

"Alright, I'm done." he proclaimed hopping off the tree and landing in a crouch besides her on the trunk.

She perked up and smiled brilliantly." Really? Cool, I knew you'd do it!"

... great, now he actually felt bad for lying to her. And not only that, he was also using her disability for his advantage. Sigh.

"No, just kidding, I need a break, is all."

Her face fell and he felt only slightly better. Way to go, Inuyasha, after all, making people miserable has always been your favorite pastime, right?

"Very funny. Now get back to work, you lazy bum, You'll get a break as soon as it gets dark."

"Just who are you, my slave driver? And how do you know it's not dark yet, anyway? Huh? Huh!"

She gestured vaguely. "The birds, and there's sun on my arm, I can feel it."

Crud. Damn her for adapting to her blindness so fast.

And so he dragged himself up again silently wondering why he was letting that girl order him around this way.

It actually only took him till a few hours past noon to finish the house the next day, but Kagome then decided that building a fucking house wasn't enough, no, they needed beds of some kind, and some food in store, and why didn't he just build some device for fishing while he was at it? And what was worst was that she always started doing things on her own when he refused to, and ended up hurt sooner than he was able to bat down his pride and give in, so in the end he did everything she told him to and actually felt like he was doing the right thing, right until he was done and remembered that all of it served her ridiculous plan. Now was that twisted or what?

She was only satisfied when he'd burnt a plan that showed the situation of the nearby river into a piece of bark (where did she get all those loony ideas from, anyway?) and hung it on a string from the now waterproof ceiling so it couldn't be missed.

The sun was therefore already setting when they finally settled down inside the hut and Kagome pulled forth the shard to do the creepy stuff. But minutes passed and nothing transpired except for a few beads of sweat on her bow and she sheepishly dropped her hands to her lap.

"Uhm, it doesn't work."

"I figured as much, thank you."

"No reason to be so snappish about it!"

"I'm fucking fed up with this dimension after I was forced to spend two days more than necessary in here and would _gladly_ get the fuck out but a certain someone is obviously too fucking stupid to get us out so humor me if that affects my mood a little!"

She opened and closed her mouth a few times until she found her tongue and then he really wished she hadn't.

"You insufferable, arrogant prick!" She screeched with that little girl voice of her counterpart, "Do you think this is easy? Until ten days ago I didn't even know I had these powers, and now I'm supposed to summon them whenever I want just because you don't have an ounce of patience in you and consider trying to keep people from being punished for things they haven't done a waste of time! You make me so mad sometimes I – Ah! It's working, I-" and off she went.

Dangit, hadn't that Sango said something about her powers needing to be triggered by intense emotions and stuff?

But Kagome's counterpart began to move and he had little time left to go about that explanation. What was her name again?

"Palea?"

"What? Who are you? Where - "

Right. This was going to be fun...

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A.N.: Right, I know it's been a long time... but hey, this chapter is 27 pages long... in the formatted version, but still. So after this rather depressing chapter... and the one before that... and before that... anyway, the next chapter will be much more lighthearted and that... although, with my humor you never know what I'll consider funny tomorrow.

Oh and did I mention that I like reviews...?


	11. Of smiling and self respect

**A parallel dimensional fairytale **

Chapter 9

Of smiling and self respect

Disclaimer: I never claimed I owned Inuyasha, what's there to disclaim, I wonder?

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Third time around, the feeling of exiting her counterparts mind was beginning to lose its thrill, Kagome thought, or she was just too mad to really delight in it.

'How dare he say those things to me? And there I thought he was beginning to make an effort to be a little nicer but nu-uh!'

She mentally shook her head and didn't even realize when that imaginative motion became real as her body began manifesting again. But when her sight returned, all thoughts about insufferable hanyous and their antics where pushed aside to be replaced by giggly gibberish. She squealed when she saw Sango sitting on yet another armchair right in front of her.

"Hi," she greeted hastily, completely forgetting that Sango was a goddess for all she knew and that she'd been rather scared of her not so long ago, and greedily began glancing around the setting said goddess had come up with this time.

And as if Sango knew Kagome had been deprived of her eyesight for almost a week and would be desperate for a little sensory overload (which she probably did, if she was as omniscient as she said she was) she had conjured them right onto a tower overlooking a sea into which a blazing red orange sun was just dropping, painting the few clouds ahead rose. Beautiful. Kagome sucked in as much of the picturesque scene as possible, then turned back to Sango to ask her about it but instead she almost collided with a half transparent Inuyasha.

The fact that he had yet to materialize fully did _not_ hide the immensely disgruntled expression on his face. Kagome seethed again. What right did _he_ have to be mad at anything?

"You!" she started, as soon as he was solid enough for her to poke him. "I'm not done with you yet! I -"

But he just flipped her off and took in the sight she'd just been awed by. Kagome was not going to tolerate that.

"Hel_-lo?_ I'm talking to you!" she tugged at his sleeve and he whipped around.

"You!" he hollered, and Kagome took a step back instinctively. Well, at least he was acknowledging her now...

"You and your fucked up plans! Mind explaining why each of them seems to end up with some girl totally freaking out on me? First that bodybuilding part time lesbian throws me a punch that probably broke my jaw and now that hysterical little princess throws a fit and falls straight off the fucking tree house that you had me build on a streak of genius!"

Immediate concern for her counterpart's wellbeing briefly overrode the urge to strangle him for mocking her ideas again.

"She fell? Is she all right?"

"Yeah, yeah, calm down, I caught her... although-"

"What?"

"Well, I was still pulling her up when I was beginning to um, fade away, so I don't really know what my counterpart will do..."

Kagome closed her eyes in resignation.

"Did you at least get to explain things to her?"

Her eyes opened just in time to see him tense before he shrugged, "'Course I did."

She scrutinized him suspiciously.

"Well, kinda," he qualified after a short staring match and shrugged again. "She freaked out before I was getting to the main part, but I told her when I felt myself fading. I'm just not that sure she paid attention."

Kagome groaned. Things really weren't going her way since the very beginning of this... adventure, why would they have this time, Kagome tried to console Kagome. But, that hardly made it any better.

"Don't fret," Inuyasha patted her shoulder. "I told you it was a crap idea."

Now that really did it! "I don't believe you! I haven't seen you coming up with any better ideas, or actually caring about what happens to our counterparts for that matter. All you seem to be capable of is mocking mine and screwing it up! I bet you didn't even make an effort to explain things to her properly!"

"What?" Inuyasha ripped his hand from her shoulder so fast it collided with his own. "You hypocritical little bitch! Really, I don-"

"THAT'S IT!"

Kagome peered past Inuyasha who whipped around at Sango's yell and then really wished she hadn't. And there she'd thought she'd been scared of Sango before... the probable godess was massaging her temples and seething like a tea kettle forgotten on the fire.

"I'm not going to put up with you another _second_!" she hissed at them and made an ominous gesture with her hand. "You're going straight into that next dimension. I don't want to hear another word from you, let alone be forced to participate in your over-boiling emotions any more! The shard is in the possession of the director of the pharmaceutical factory on the outskirts of the town you'll find yourselves in."

"Wha-" Inuyasha attempted to protest but was effectively stared into silence.

And before Kagome collected her courage to try and demand more information herself she already felt herself fading.

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Laughter and singing was the first sound that met her ears when she started taking over her counterpart's body, the carefree laughter of children to be exact. And indeed, as soon as her eyes started working, she breathed a sigh of relief just because they actually did, she saw herself surrounded by children of all ages, from toddlers to those at the brink of puberty. Kagome realized immediately that she was taller than most but still smaller than a lot of them. Which meant that she was a child yet again...

The children were forming a circle around some children in the middle and were singing a children's song of some kind to which the children in the middle performed a cute kind of play that seemed to involve hats. They were standing in the middle of a room that had large windows at the far end and miniature furniture obviously designed to be used by small children, as well as slightly taller chairs and a table. She was probably in some kind of day care center, Kagome reasoned.

It was when she took notice of the two adults surveying the play that she realized the first oddity. She was smiling without really feeling the fuzzy, happy fluttering in her stomach that normally made her smile in the first place. She had actual trouble pulling her face straight and in the end decided not to bother with the strain in her cheeks and just keep smiling even if she rather felt like frowning confusedly. When the song finished she saw that everyone seemed to be smiling around here, each of the children, and the adults in the back, too.

Maybe people were really happy in this dimension?

Well, at least she would have no trouble finding Inuyasha that way. She'd just have to look for the only one who was not smiling. Kagome snickered at that thought and eased out of the circle of children to go looking for her grumpy and jerkish companion but she only managed a few steps before one of the adults, a lanky young man actually, crouched down in front of her.

"Nuh uh uh, we don't leave the circle before we have all said our little prayer, Morgaine. You really should know that by now." He gently shoved her back in line with the children that were now staring at her bewilderedly.

Great, there she'd promised herself to be a lot more careful with how she acted inside the dimension lest she wreak serious havoc in her counterparts' lives again and now she was standing out after a mere minute.

The children grabbed each other's hands and closed their eyes to pray, obviously, and so Kagome just played along, although the prayer they mumbled in perfect unison was not familiar to her. In a way, she was glad about that, it was a little freaky after all, and a little stupid. So stupid in fact, that she wondered how some of the older children could recite it with a straight face

They were indeed allowed to entertain themselves by themselves after the prayer and Kagome sneaked out of the room into a large corridor paved with colorful pictures and long lines of wooden coat racks. She opened the next door a few paces down the corridor and looked inside. The room behind was similar to the one she'd come from and held about as many children who were all busy playing. However, none of them, nor either of the two adults surveying them behaved really Inuyasha-ish, so Kagome closed that door and opened the next one. Inside that room the group of children still seemed to be gathered in their circle, although they were sitting on chairs, and were not singing. Instead, they were all turned towards the two adults who appeared to be a little uncomfortable, despite the smiles fixed on their faces.

"-so where _do_ they come from, then? I asked mommy when she brought my new brother home but she wouldn't tell me." a little girl was asking just as Kagome stuck her head inside.

"Well," one of the adults drawled. "That's an interesting question. Where do the babies come from?"

Kagome suppressed a giggle at the increasing discomfort of the two educators. She still vividly remembered the priceless expression on her mother's face when five year old Souta had come home one day asking what a 'hooker' was. Wherever he'd learned that word anyway...

"Maybe one of you has an idea?" the educator continued.

Mumbling arose among the children as each of them seemed to be contemplating that question. A tiny voice rose at last.

"Maybe our Lord makes them?"

The adult nodded enthusiastically. "Wonderful, Clodarch, that is - "

"Keh!" another voice suddenly interrupted. Kagome perked up and scanned the circle of children for a scowling face. However, some of them were sitting with their backs to the door; the boy who'd just spoken up was among those.

"That's fucking ridiculous. I knew that much when I was your age." The boy turned towards the girl who'd brought up the matter. "Your father knocked your mother up, and voila, you got your baby brother," he explained matter-of-factly.

Inuyasha.

Kagome failed to suppress a groan that briefly distracted the totally baffled educator. But only briefly.

"Who told you ... _that_?" he asked the boy who, in a matter of seconds, had become Kagome's first choice candidate for possible Inuyasha counterparts of this dimension. She slipped into the room as soon as the circle of children was the center of attention again.

"It's not true, of course - " he explained to the rest of the group wile his smile grew in confidence again, and Kagome wondered why he'd do that now that the cat was out of the bag anyway, " - and whoever told you this must be awfully misled, the poor one, so why don't you just tell me who might have said such a wicked thing?" his smile briefly changed into a 'we're buddies, you can tell me' grin of some sort. "Then perhaps we can all go and help that someone back onto the right path again."

Kagome reached the boy she suspected to be Inuyasha the moment he snorted at that.

"Yeah right... " he drawled and now Kagome was sure that is was Inuyasha sitting there in front of her. No child of ten should be capable of drenching two words with that amount of sarcasm and arrogance.

"Inuyasha," she hissed, effectively shutting him up when he was about to continue. He finally turned and looked at her and yup, he was definitely frowning.

"Kagome?" he whispered.

"Yes. What are you _doing_?"

"Huh?"

"I thought we agreed to try to _not_ mess around with our counterpart's lives any more!" she huffed.

"Nice definition of an 'agreement' you got there, where one person decides and the other is the asshole if they don't play along," he spat back.

Kagome opened her mouth to retort – and closed it again. That was kind of true... but still, they just couldn't go on like this! Conformity and precaution were required here!

"Who is your little friend, Meiron? Isn't that Morgaine from group four?"

... so much for conformity on her side. But all was not lost yet. She turned to the teacher and brandished the most syrupy sweet smile she could manage.

"Yes, that's me, Morgaine. I wanted to ask Meiron if he'll come out to play."

There, she was slowly getting the hang of that whole acting thing... at least when it came to playing dim witted little girls...

"Can he pleease?" she added, tilting her head for good measure. She felt a little manipulative now...

But it worked. The adult who seemed to feel in charge, rather than the other, nodded – with a smile.

"Of course you can, Morgaine, but you see our mass has not finished yet. You'll have to wait a little, dear."

"Ooh." Kagome smiled what she hoped looked like a slightly disappointed smile, "All right.."

"But if you like, you can join us!"

"Yuppee!" she squealed and felt like an utter moron. The other educator fetched a chair for her and she sat down beside Inuyasha. He was staring at her as if she'd just declared her undying love for hairy, overgrown spider youkai. Which was close, in a way; she felt equally appalled by her own behavior.

But, she'd obviously stunned him out of smart arse retorts because when the educator explained that he would like to have a word with him about those nasty things he'd said later on Inuyasha just nodded - and frowned.

After the prayer and a short wordless argument about whether Inuyasha should put back his chair or not they were actually allowed to go 'play'. They slipped out of the room just in time to avoid a boy who was approaching Inuyasha with a puzzled expression and into the bathrooms across the corridor.

"All right -" Kagome started, but at the sight of Inuyasha's frown, or rather, er, increase in frownage, she interrupted herself. "What?" she asked warily.

"These people are fucking nuts. I don't know what they were doing where you came from but in my group they were... it's like they want to turn the children into morons, really. Did you hear that stuff about where the babies come from and that? What use is there in telling them that kinda crap? And before you came, someone was asking about when they were going to be allowed to go to something called... cong-whatever. Something like that anyway, and from what I understood that's where they, like, get a life partner from, like with those Omai back in Japan, you know, but kinda worse cause you hardly know more than each other's name when you move in together. But you're expected to 'contribute offspring' once in four years. And at the same time they say 'The Lord' wants people to live freely and happily in each of their stupid songs. Kinda hypocritical if you ask me."

It was all Kagome could do not to go looking for the real Inuyasha somewhere.

"Why – what – You _care_?" she stammered, totally forgetting that she had meant to hurry up with the shard here and at least try to be back by the time their counterpart's parents would come to fetch them.

Inuyasha, oblivious to her shock, shrugged. "Well, I guess once you get used to the whole democratic, liberal idea everything else can't win anymore. It's nice having a choice, at least in some places -"

"Who are you? What have you done to my dimension travel-partner?" Kagome blurted out.

"What?" Inuyasha glared, immediately suspicious. "Did you think just because I'm hanyou I'd be too stupid to know about that?"

Kagome had to blink before she processed how he'd come to that conclusion. "What would that have to do with you being half youkai? I was just surprised that you suddenly sounded like you care for people other than yourself."

"I don't, I didn't say that, did I?" he snapped back, obviously only half appeased.

"Well, caring about their personal freedom is a beginning, I guess..."

"I don't _care_, I... whatever," he huffed. "Let's go find out where that factory is!" and turned on his heel.

Kagome rolled her eyes. Coming out of the mouth of a freckled boy his whole attitude became even more unbelievable. Who was he trying to kid, anyway? And what to prove?

Inuyasha stopped at the door and turned again. "Where do we find that out then?"

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They didn't, in fact, find out the exact location of the factory since asking the adults only led to suspicious questions about why they wanted to know that. As for the name of the factory, Inuyasha had the admittedly good idea to sneak a look at the first aid kit, since they'd probably only stored medication from that factory.

When they were stopped from just taking it from were it hung on the wall by the educator though, she had to restrain him from going the Inuyasha way about it, which was hurting some child and wait for "the brat" to be treated. Before she'd finished her lecture, he'd grabbed a rather blunt children's scissors and hurt himself, which was not really any better, since it demonstrated just the same disregard for human life. And even though he could just as well have claimed to have a 'tummy ache' or something and try it that way, it worked and the wound wasn't deep, so Kagome didn't let him know that.

'Pharmavaltion' was the name, and with that information obtained they agreed it should be possible to ask someone in the streets for directions. They sneaked out into the play garden of the center their counterparts were visiting. According to the large clock in the corridor, they were nearing four P.M., and their parents were likely to show up sometime soon. On their way out, Kagome spotted some bikes standing in a rack.

"Wait, Inuyasha!" she yelled, and Inuyasha, who was already busy doing the rabbit thing around the street turned back to her.

"Let's borrow some of the bikes, we'll be a lot faster that way!" she gestured towards the parked vehicles.

Inuyasha gave them a once over and then said: "No."

"What? But why not?"

"...they're locked." he explained, but the answer came a few seconds too late.

"That's not really gonna stop you, right? I mean, you built a tree house in two days, you're handy like that," she was still kinda impressed by it, even thought she had never actually seen it. (Souta's and her tree house had taken them a week to build and in the end, it only supported one of them at a time. It was Buyo who brought it down in the end, when he jumped onto her lap while she was up there.)

Inuyasha actually looked like he was blushing for a moment but with the lessening light it was hard to tell. His answer stayed the same, though. "No. _You_ were the one to insist that we don't mess with our counterparts' lives any more. Stealing bikesis going to get them into trouble, don't you think?"

"Well, yes, but staying away over night might even be worse. They're just little kids; I think their parents would worry about that rather than about them taking some bikes without asking."

Inuyasha opened and closed his mouth a few times. "Well, tough, I'm not gonna do it!"

Kagome scrutinized him, from his impatiently shifting feet to the eyes that refused to meet hers. "There's more to it, isn't there?" she half guessed.

"No!" Inuyasha turned away. "We're losing time, now come on!" he called over his shoulder. Which was, in its way, as good as a 'yes'.

"Why don't you want to take those bikes? You must be just as keen as me on getting out of this dimension as quickly as possible... unless..." But that was ridiculous. With a balance like his, he could probably cycle with his eyes shut. Nevertheless, he'd tensed when she'd trailed off, and so she just asked anyway.

"Unless you just can't - ?"

"Of course I can!" he interrupted, which was as good as an open admission.

"It's OK." Kagome stifled a giggle. "I'd just have thought with the way you rode that horse and stuff... "

"I _can_ ride bikes! No problem at all. I just don't _like_ it, OK?" he explained decidedly, ruining the effect when he refused to turn around and face her while saying it. "Now come on, there's a car pulling over over there, might well be one of our parents."

"Then let's just take one. I'll ride and take you up on the rear. You look scrawny enough, we're about the same height,it should work alright"

He finally turned, glared, then rolled his eyes. "Oh whatever. You're not gonna leave this alone until you get what you want, right?"

Kagome smiled, a real smile. "Yup."

"You're impossible," he snapped, even while he was already examining the different locks.

"Yup."

"Whatever."

Inuyasha could indeed not cycle, it seemed. As to what the reason might have been Kagome had no idea, since he refused to talk about it even when she threatened to steer the bike into a bush at the side of the road. Soon after that, she was way too exhausted to keep on interrogating him, so she stuffed that question into the overflowing parcel of her mind she had reserved for the constant source of her curiosity that was her hanyou dimension-travel companion.

The factory was not hard to find because the city was brimmed with signs pointing the way to a 'up to 70 reduced! to clear' sale and they managed to arrive there just when the sun, dimmed by the thick carpet of clouds that had been overcasting the sky since their arrival, began to disappear behind the skyline of the city. The factory area was surrounded by a fence at least two meters tall, crowned with mean looking barbed wire and had no apparent entrance except for the main one, which was guarded.

"So how are we gonna get in there?" Kagome asked, slumping to the ground to catch her breath. "I can definitely feel the shard, it's inside there somewhere, but how do we get over that fence?"

"Well, I can't carry you this time, so I guess I'll go alone first, find something to cut the fence open with, and let you in."

That sounded reasonable, even if Kagome didn't like being left behind. "Ok. But hurry up, please."

She looked up to catch him looking at her with a strange expression, but before she could ask he tore his gaze from her, leaped onto the fence and started climbing up. Reaching the top he asked her to hand him her jacket, threw it over the barbed wire and carefully eased over the top of the fence, cursing when he apparently cut himself on it. He jumped down on the other side and disappeared into the dusky shadows between the huge storage houses.

Kagome leaned back against the fence and closed her eyes, allowing herself to relax a little before chaos would most likely ensue again. Somehow, this world left her more ill at ease that any of the previous had, even the one she knew was crowded with giant spiders and snakes. And Inuyasha must have felt the same, she guessed by his baffling outburst in the bathroom. Why was everyone... smiling, for lack of a better word, all of the time? Even now, having spent more than an hour in this temporary body she had only begun to get a grip on that stupid smiling reflex; as soon as she wasn't concentrating on it her eyes squinted and her mouth curved on their own. Spooky.

Inuyasha returned after a while with a spade and began digging out the part of the fence that reached underground, then managed to pull it up enough for Kagome to crawl through. When he helped her up she spotted dark stains on his jacket and when they started sneaking towards the main building she saw that he was limping slightly. She opened her mouth to ask when he suddenly pushed her into the doorway they were just passing and clamped a hand over her mouth.

"A guard's coming." he explained "With... oh crap, a dog."

He closed his eyes for a second, then stepped away from her, gripping the shovel tighter.

"Stay right here and hold perfectly still. Don't even breathe if you don't have to."

He was about to slip away when Kagome reached out and grabbed his hand. "Don't kill them, please." she asked, knowing full well that a spade for a weapon didn't leave too much of a choice about that.

He gave her that strange look again, then nodded slowly and disappeared into the now completely dark grid of warehouses. A few seconds later she heard a bark that ceased with a whine, then a scream that just stopped dead. A minute passed, then Inuyasha came back, limping even harder, the spade over his shoulder and his jacket torn.

"Bound and gagged him. Gimme a minute." he huffed and sat down in the doorway.

Kagome squinted her eyes to search him for injuries other than the obvious one on his leg but it was too dark already. She hated people getting hurt in general, but with Inuyasha, it was even worse. And that was only partly because he was usually wounded whilst doing what he thought was necessary to ensure her safety. What made it so hard to bear, Kagome guessed, was more the way he reacted to it. Like it didn't matter at all whether he was OK or not, as if his own life and wellbeing really meant nothing to him. At first, she'd thought he was just being that reckless because it wasn't his own body he risked, but a sane person would still do anything within his might to avoid being hurt for fear of pain. He didn't. It left her feeling, well, curious, as usual, since she couldn't help but wonder what a person had to have experienced to feel that way, but mainly it left her feeling sad. Because no matter what the reason really might have been, it couldn't have been anything she'd wish for anyone to have to go through.

Inuyasha caught her glare and returned it offendedly. "Fucking quit pitying me! I can still fight all right, 'tis just a sprained ankle or something." He jumped to his feet as if to prove her worries wrong but she heard him hiss when he landed. "Now come on, let's get this done quickly, before anyone finds our friend over there."

They didn't meet other guards on their way to the main building and found an open window. Sneaking around the ground floor they looked for a way up, which was where Kagome felt the shard, but found the door leading to the stairway locked. Inuyasha insisted they try find another way up, like up the facade outside, or through the production area they'd found behind another locked door that happened to have a glass window.

"But that's needless and dangerous. That guy has to go home sometime; we might as well wait for him down here. If he's got the shard with him we're lucky, if not, we might still find a better way up as soon as he's down," Kagome countered, and Inuyasha grudgingly agreed.

They hid behind a door left slightly ajar opposite the one leading to the staircase. An hour or so passed, but the shard did not move a single inch, which might have been because the factory owner did not keep it on himself. Kagome was thus not even sure there actually was someone up there, but she kept her mouth shut about that for the time being. There had been light behind at least one window up there, that was for sure. Still, knowing Inuyasha, no, not knowing, since that was what frustrated her so, but having some kind of idea of his patience or lack thereof, he'd probably insist they pull some awkward stunt to get up there. And Inuyasha's counterpart's body was already hurt bad enough as it was. But, as if she'd said that aloud, Inuyasha turned from peering out in the corridor to look at her.

"Is the shard moving down yet? Is it moving at all for that matter?" he whispered.

"Uhm... Yeah... " Strangely, lying to random people to keep up some kind of act as her counterpart was so very much easier than lying to Inuyasha, especially when he was watching her with such a reproachful expression on the freckly and large eyed face of his counterpart.

"... yeah. It's not moving at all?" he sighed. "You could have told me earlier, you know. You _said_ you wanted to do this as quickly as possible."

"Well, I just had that inkling you'd have us do something stupid if I did." she snapped, totally nailed.

"What do you mean, _I_'d have us do anything? As I recall we've only ever done what _you _wanted us to, or rather, _I _only ever did what you told me to."

"That's just not true!" Kagome jumped up. "What about..."

"Hah, ya see? What about the tree house, huh? And the whole making up with the offended 'friends' shit. I don't recall _me_ telling you to kiss... whatever."

"Well, but that's all just because you never have any ideas!" Kagome defended herself, ignoring the strange twinkle in Inuyasha's eyes she hoped she'd imagined and her suddenly very warm face. She'd just about managed to ban that particular... incident from her memory. "All you ever do is complain about pretty much everything I suggest. Just because you don't give enough of a damn about anything to give it a second thought, doesn't give you the right to bitch around if I happen to!"

Inuyasha pinched the bridge of his nose annoyedly. "Woman, we had that already. I don't give a damn about anything all right. That's none of your concern."

"Did I just say you don't care? Scratch that. It's rubbish. I _know_ you care, you wouldn't still be participating in this shard business if you didn't. Yeah, I know - " she interrupted him when he opened his mouth to counter that. "There's that reward, but that can't really mean all that much to you, you haven't even come up with something to ask for yet, not even asked what is possible and what's not. You do all this..." Harsh words were called for here "crap without even knowing what's in it for you, don't tell me you don't care about anything. You must at least, like, feel responsible for the, well, the universe and its inhabitants. You're kinda saving it right now, after all. And what about that personal freedom stuff back in the kindergarten? It's obvious you care about _some _things, you just must have told yourself that you don't too often, is all." That _had_ to be it, Kagome was sure.

Inuyasha opened and closed his mouth a few times, struggling to find a smart way to react. In the end he chose the probably most familiar one, which was getting angry.

"You stupid brat! It's not because of the fucking universe that I'm doing this crap! It's 'cause I... it's because of-"

"Now, now, what do we have here?" a voice interrupted him, and just when it got interesting, too.

A man had stuck his head through the door and was smiling down at them. Although that probably meant nothing, since everyone seemed to be smiling around here, no matter the circumstances. Inuyasha was obviously thinking along those lines too, because before the man had the chance to utter another word he threw himself against the door, catching the man's head in a heavy blow that knocked him into a groaning heap on the floor. Kagome was horrified and about to voice that, but Inuyasha grabbed her hand and pulled her over the man, another watchman, judging by his uniform, and out into the corridor. The door leading to the staircase was now open and Inuyasha dragged her right through, kicking it shut behind him.

"Why'd you do that?" Kagome huffed as they hurried up the stairs. "He wasn't even threatening us!"

"He'd gripped his truncheon already. And he was tensing. I wasn't gonna risk anything."

"Well, all right, but you - "

"Shut up, we're almost there."

'- could have killed him. That's what I call risking something. And we're just children right now, who'd want to harm us?' Kagome thought, but kept it to herself as they had indeed reached the first floor. Inuyasha pushed her behind him and carefully opened the door with the large "1"on it. A voice carried into the staircase, but Kagome wasn't able to single out any words. Slowly, they edged through the door and into yet another corridor. The shard tingling had gained strength all the way up the stairs and was now almost buzzing in her head. The shard was on this floor.

She tapped Inuyasha on the shoulder and nodded when he turned to her. He seemed to understand what she was getting at, answering with a nod of his own and mouthing what might have been the word 'where'. Kagome pointed to the only door that had light shining out from the gap beneath it and from behind which the voice sounded, because that was where she felt the shard was. Inuyasha sighed almost inaudibly, and she shared his feelings. It would have been a lot easier, though unlikely, if the shard had been inside one of the obviously vacant rooms behind the multiple doors in that corridor.

Only when they reached the door in question was Kagome able to properly hear what the person behind was saying. He, his voice told as much, was talking to someone on the phone.

"- coming up here? But why would- wait a minute... "

And, steps began creaking on the floor inside. "Come on up right now!" the man barked.

Kagome opened her mouth to shout a warning the very second Inuyasha grabbed her hand and dashed along the corridor towards where it crossed with another one. Behind them Kagome could hear a door burst open and the man stomped out into the corridor just when they slithered around the left hand corner.

But, the legs of children were not made for outrunning grown-ups, even large ones like this. He caught up so quickly they might just as well have stayed where they were. Inuyasha cursed, shoved her aside and spun around; gripping the spade he still carried with him tighter.

The first thing Kagome realized about the man coming at them was that he was carrying the shard now. The second thing was that he was the first person she'd met in this dimension, save for Inuyasha, that was _not, _by her interpretation of the wordsmiling. His face was drawn into a furious mask involving lots of teeth and... well, on a second thought, maybe _he _did feel that this expression qualified as a smile. Which was more than just creepy. Inuyasha was apparently not going to ponder that, as soon as the man was in reach he swung the spade. But, the man evaded with surprising agility, considering his sheer hugeness. Inuyasha tried again to hit him but this time he just caught the instrument with one hand and hurled it, with Inuyasha still attached, against the wall.

Kagome screamed when she saw her partner slide to the ground and remain lying there, not stirring, and even more when the man then turned to her.

"What are you two doing here, I wonder?" he said while advancing, in a voice of a calm and friendly quality that contradicted the expression on his face as well as the now groaning heap of Inuyasha he'd left lying behind him. Kagome scrambled backwards as he chatted on.

"Knocking down two of my watchmen and killing one of my priceless watchdogs, my wor - " a scrape of metal had him turn just in time to have Inuyasha's shovel hit him in the chest instead of his back. He stumbled backwards but caught himself alarmingly well. Inuyasha stood there, or rather swayed there, clutching the spade, one eye closed because blood was running into it from a cut on his brow. The man was on him before he could raise the his makeshift weapon a second time and ripped his it from his arms. Kagome came to her feet and jumped to intervene but was suddenly snatched out of the air and tucked under someone's arm.

"I got the other one, sir."

The man who was by all appearances the chief of the factory, about to hit Inuyasha, stopped and tilted his head friendlily. "I would not move another muscle if I were you, little man, or your friend might have to pay."

Inuyasha said nothing and dropped the spade he'd picked up again.

"Let her go," he demanded menacingly, but coming from the mouth of a ten year old it just sounded cute, for lack of a better word.

"You're hardly in the position to be making any demands here, little man. Quite the opposite, _I_ demand to know what possessed the two of you to break in here."

He looked from Inuyasha to Kagome, who was still uncomfortably and rather humiliatingly tucked under the watchman's arm, expectantly. When neither replied - well, what could they have said anyway? - he sighed.

"Look, kids, I know 'Pharmacreation' is onto us about those new 'joy-pills' we're about to launch and would do anything to get their hands on the formula. I _do_ believe they are eager or plain stupid enough to send children to spy on us in hopes that I would be lenient if they were caught, seeing as all their previous attempts at infiltrating our laboratories ended in the... inexplicable disappearance of their spies."

Kagome felt her jaw drop and her heart clench. Abuse children as spies? Inexplicable disappearance? It was obvious that this man was just as ruthless as the picture he'd drawn of his rival factory, if not more so. And very clearly very insane.

"I'm telling you this because if you do happen to be two of those spies now is the time to tell me so and to tell me exactly what you've already found out," the factory owner continued. "And that, I'm afraid, is the only way there is for the two of you to leave unharmed," he tilted his head again "I take business quite seriously, you know," and poked Inuyasha in the chest. "Now tell me, little man. What kind of game did they tell you to play? Where did you go before you came up here? Huh?"

And Kagome sighed when she saw Inuyasha kick the man's shin in an answer 's stead. It wasn't like he _could_ have told the man what he wanted to hear because then they'd be screwed for sure, no matter what he wanted them to believe, but there was always the option of being more ... subtle in one's refusal.

The man let go of Inuyasha and stepped back, tapping his nose. "Well you do seem to know something, given that fierce resistance," he paused for a moment, thinking. "There are ways of getting it out of you. Mulier, take the girl to the high security storerooms, lock her up and come up to the laboratory." His smile grew even more unpleasant as he turned his gaze back on Inuyasha. "I've been itching to run a few first tests on that prototype inquisiative. You're gonna be my mouse, little man."

Off they went. Inuyasha didn't look at her when they passed him but she thought she saw a hint of fear in his frown. That might have been wishful... seeing, though, since she so desperately _wanted_ him to be scared at the prospect of maybe even being tortured for all he knew. There was nothing heroic in being that reckless about himself, but something very worrying and disturbing. Though she was twisting kicking and squirming under the watchman's arm she couldn't catch another glimpse at his face.

The watchman settled her on the ground as soon as they'd reached ground floor again.

"I'm not going to take you down there, stop crying already!" he said, and Kagome realized that she was indeed crying, not for fear of being imprisoned, but for that idiot up there somewhere.

"Chief's a tough guy, I know, but this is going too far. You're just children, even if you've given Morus and Metor a hard time. I'm going to drop you in front of the gates and you'll hurry on home as fast as you can, all right?"

"But my... friend. What about him?" Kagome croaked.

The watchman shook his head. "I'm risking enough by letting you escape, little lady. I don't think I can do anything for your friend. Come on now." And he picked her up again, carrying her out to the main gates as he'd promised and all but shoved her outside there after a few words with the watchman there.

"Stay away, don't try anything stupid, like rescuing your friend." he yelled after the gates had closed behind her again, and hurried off.

Kagome ran, down the highly illuminated road until she was sure the watch at the gate could not see her anymore, which was quite far, then plunged into the shadows besides the road and ran back, twice as fast, to the hole in the fence she'd squeezed in through the first time.

There were no watchmen around, which meant they hadn't found it yet, or hadn't cared.

Kagome hurried through the labyrinth of warehouses and lost a few precious minutes when she took several wrong turns, her sense of orientation had never been great to begin with, but she arrived at the main building again after what she guessed to be about twenty minutes. Twenty minutes during which quite a lot could have happened.

She shook her head to shake the pictures of medieval thumbscrews and stretching benches and less medieval electroshocking devices and truth serums and found the window they'd sneaked in through before now securely closed. Circling the whole building frenetically she found absolutely no entrance whatsoever on ground level, but a small window about two meters or more high up on the wall behind which the production area lay. She fought down the tears that threatened to rise again and rushed to fetch some crates she'd seen somewhere on the way, all the while successfully praying that no watchman come along. A few rather large stones found their way into her anorak's pockets since she figured some kind of weapon might come in handy at some point. She thought her arms would fall off and her lungs might explode when she mounted her little pyramid of wooden boxes at last, but there was no helping it. She peered through the half opened window to find the insides even blacker than the night outside. But the handle was on the inside and the window wouldn't budge, no matter how hard she pressed.

Inuyasha would probably have known how to open it... but that was stupid, co-dependent, and not emancipated thinking and would stop this very instant! She sat down to think and her behind had barely touched the box when she'd come up with something. She tugged the cord out of the hem of her anorak and tied one end into a small sling. Then she dangled that sling over the handle on the inside until it caught, pulled it through the small gap below the window, and with many slips and careful tugging managed to turn the handle into the horizontal. (It works. I opened a window that way, once.) The window, hanging only half on its hinges then, slid open and she eased through. The floor on the inside was higher than the ground outside, thankfully. Kagome landed with a clank on an iron balcony thingy that seemed to circle the whole hall, from what she could see in the dark, interrupted by only a few red lights on the monstrous shadow of the machinery and the moonlight filtering through the few dust encrusted windows. She pressed to the ground and waited anxiously but no one seemed to have heard her.

The multiple limbed creature that was really only was a conglomerate of different large machines seemed to move in the corner of her eye as she hurried along the balcony towards some kind of exit but that was probably just her fear of the dark speaking up. Kagome reached the very door Inuyasha and she had stood on the other side of few hours ago and did what she had not wanted Inuyasha to do back then, she smashed the glass with one of the stones and hid up on the balcony again; it stopped a meter or so before the doorframe. But, no one appeared to have taken notice so she fetched a stool from one of the assembly lines and climbed through the dangerously sharp edged opening without greater damage, except to her hands, which bled from several cuts. But she had neither material nor time to take care of these wounds now. She ran through the corridor ahead, praying for the door to the staircase to still be open.

Her prayers were heard for the second time that night although she certainly still did not feel particularly graced by the gods right then. She passed the door to the first floor and dashed further up; the factory owner had told his watchman to come _up_ to the laboratories, which meant they had to be somewhere above. That and the shard was up there, too.

She was but a few stairs from the door to the second floor when she heard a door bang somewhere up high and hurried steps descend right towards her. She turned on her heel and hurried down the stairs herself, taking care to make as little noise as possible and was about to try the door to first floor when the person above her spotted her.

"Kagome"

She heard that broken whisper and turned stupefied, just in time to see Inuyasha stumble over the last steps and fall towards her. She did her best to cushion his fall but in the end, they landed as a tumbled heap on the landing. Inuyasha remained lying on top of her a little too long and she found that odd at first, but he was simply just an inch from unconsciousness. He came to his senses when she shook him though, and scrambled to his feet staggering. Kagome stood, too and only then found her tongue again.

"What happened to you?" she whispered, unsure whether it was safe to speak aloud.

But she really wished she hadn't asked when Inuyasha lifted his face and she saw it was a distorted mask of _something_ between a smile and an expression of naked horror.

"Lots," he explained, his voice as raw and weak as he looked. He extended a hand. "Come on."

"What?" she asked absently, while she searched him for injuries, but the only new ones he had were on his lower lip, which looked savaged and was still bleeding.

"The shard, we-"

"We can't go after the shard now!" she hissed. "You're wrecked, face it, and I'm a state too," she showed him her still bleeding hands. He looked at them and sighed, then carefully snatched her wrist and pulled her down the stairs and into the restroom there.

A thought suddenly occurred to Kagome, up to that point shoved aside by the sheer relief of having found Inuyasha alive and the sorrow at seeing him anything but well, whatever the cause might have been.

"The factory owner! Won't he come after you?" she whispered, panic squeezing her insides.

Inuyasha shook his head. "Not for a while, he should be well out of it."

"What the heck did he do to you?" Kagome asked urgently.

Inuyasha started to shake his head again but then he suddenly dropped the wet piece of his shirt he had been dabbing her wounds with and a tremor went through him. He bit onto his still bleeding lip and uttered the most horrifying sound Kagome had heard in her whole life and beyond, a squeal of pain mixed with a throaty groan of anguish and a muffled scream of agony. His hand squeezed her wrist unbelievably tight but she hardly felt it. Then his grip suddenly loosened as his knees seemed to give away under him. She caught him and carefully leaned him against the wall between two sinks.

"What did he _do_!" she all but yelled at him, feeling those needless tears prick at her eyes again.

It took a minute until Inuyasha was breathing normally again and he opened his eyes very carefully.

"Dunno," he shrugged, then winced. "Gets worse with each attack. Some stuff... for interrogo -" he breathed in, "interrogating pris'ners er war. They're developing it for the milit'ry he said."

"By attack you mean, bouts of pain?"

"Yup." He tried to stand but gave up when his arms wouldn't even push him off the ground. "And damn, that's a pain that is, I tell you. I don't mean to brag or anything but if there's one thing I'm really good at it'S ignoring pain but the last three bouts... whew."

"Stop it!" Kagome hissed.

"First he'd force-fed me some stuff that makes you smile. That was crazy, I mean, I was going blind with pain but smiling all the time-"

"Stop it! Stop talking about this that way!" Kagome yelled at last, tears springing from her eyes.

"What do you mean, 'that way'? You wanted to know what happened, I-"

"Stop talking about that as if it doesn't matter that you've just been _tortured_. You can't be this nonchalant about something like that, you just can't! It's neither heroic, nor macho nor whatever else you think it is, it's just sick! You, you - imagine that had happened to me, would you talk about it like this? Would you want me to?"

"Well, with you that'd be different." Inuyasha replied meekly. "What with you being a-"

"It's got nothing to do with me being a girl or with being used to it! You've been _tortured_. That's taking away everything that makes you human and-"

"I'm not human, that's what I was going to say."

"You're human right now."

He shrugged. "Even so, human standards don't apply to me, I know that. There's no human rights for me, no 'The dignity of man is inviolable' stuff. "

"Rubbish. Being only half human genetically doesn't make you any less of a _person_, and that's what matters. You're not worthless just because-"

"I didn't say I was worthless!" Inuyasha rose and did manage to stand this time.

"But you're acting like it," Kagome said, her tears dried away by the heat of her anger. Didn't he _see_?

Inuyasha huffed and turned towards the door. "Well, we've got no time for this now. We need to get up there before that bastard wakes up again."

Kagome followed him, grudgingly. "Just take a little more care of yourself," she added when they slipped out into the corridor again but Inuyasha just shrugged.

The shard hadn't moved for while and so they thought it safe to enter the laboratories again. Inuyasha had another attack on the way, and she pulled him to her and held him as he shook; it was the only pitiful attempt at comfort she knew to offer. The factory owner was still lying on the ground where Inuyasha said he left him, his head in a corona of blood and the now broken stool Inuyasha must have – repeatedly - hit him with scattered beside him. The 'interrogation' had taken place in a room that was less of a laboratory and more of an office, separated from the main area by a wall of windows one of which was now broken.

Kagome located the shard and snatched it from the man's pocket when he suddenly stirred. A squeal escaped her and alarmed Inuyasha who had been about to leave the room, but it was already to late. A hand clung like a vise around her ankle and the man dragged himself up with an inarticulate groan. Inuyasha rammed into the man full force and he fell over, onto Kagome, which was little improvement, although he did let go of her. Instead, he grabbed Inuyasha, who was, as far as Kagome could see through the stars in front of her eyes, trying to scramble away, and hurled him against the glass wall across the room. The glass split but didn't break and Inuyasha was once again out cold. The factory owner came to his feet, staggering and clutching his once again bleeding head.

Kagome did not bother with trying to stand, since air had yet to find a way into her forcefully emptied lungs again, and scrambled over to Inuyasha, the shard clutched firmly in her hand. All the while, she prayed and prayed for it to fuse with her and get them out in time, but to no avail. Her hand only just brushed Inuyasha when she was seized by her collar and dragged up to face the bruised and blood smeared face of the factory owner.

"I don't care who you two are anymore, you are going to die by my very own hands!" he screeched.

And Kagome prayed and prayed, even as he staggered over to the large window across from the door and opened it. They were on the fifth floor and outside was the concrete ground of the storage area. She was terrified to tears, which ought to have qualified as one very intense emotion but the shard stayed where it was. That is, until the factory owner suddenly glowered at her white knuckled fist and began prying it open forcefully. Kagome struggled but with her collar cutting into her air pipe, she just didn't have any strength left. He extracted the shard and proceeded to open the window.

Kagome was numb with dry ice cold panic but then, suddenly, she dropped as the man groaned and staggered dangerously close to the low window sill. She lifted her head to see Inuyasha swaying backwards, wondrously revived yet again, although he looked half dead, and clutching one of the stool legs.

The factory owner turned with a scream of something intelligible and Inuyasha retreated into the laboratory beyond the door. After a second of indecisiveness, the man turned on her again, bending with a groan to reach her when Kagome had the sense to scramble out of his reach, although her mind was buzzing with near panic confusion. Had Inuyasha taken her words from before that serious and was now leaving her to her own devices?

Suddenly there was a clatter followed by a scream and Kagome thought Inuyasha had another attack until he came storming into the room again at a speed that should have been impossible with the way he'd been limping before .

"Stay down Kagome!" he yelled and threw the stool leg so it hit the factory owner square in the face and barged into him. The man, stunned by the hit already, never stood a chance. He staggered, taking a step back, except that there was no room to step back into, reached out when he overbalanced, neatly cleared the window frame and fell out.

Kagome pushed herself over to where Inuyasha had fallen, blood thundering in her ears and shook him. He didn't stir. She turned him over and saw that his eyes where open and blood was all over his face, more of it oozing out between his lips.

"Inuyasha," she croaked around her chokingly tight throat.

"Wake up, we did it. I'll just fetch the shard -"

"Shut up," he mouthed more than said, then coughed up a handful of blood.

"Inu-I'll get the shard, don't move!"

And before he could think of answering she was in the staircase again, running past the same watchman who'd let her go before, who might or might not have said something to her. She had already dug into the man's pockets before she realized that she was actually pillaging a corpse here, and then she was already beyond caring. She put it down to shock that stepping on a piece of... brain? didn't even faze her and snatched the shard from the soaked pocket of what used to be a cream colored suit. And up she raced, past the still puzzled watchman, to find Inuyasha coughing more blood onto a telephone he was holding for whatever reason. Kagome didn't care; she yelled for that blasted shard to fuse with her and cursed that Sango person for being unable, or unwilling to beam Inuyasha up before her.

Then, finally, finally, finally, she felt herself fade from her counterpart's body.

AN: Whew, this chapter was... drastic, or something. Hard to write. (And not very much thought through at first I must admit... thanks, Alvida.)

Yeah, well I changed the title of the story temporarily, mainly because I'm paranoid and chicken, and don't want people who know me personally to read this story (The anonymity of the Internet has lotsa appeal for people like me, I guess... )

'Omai' are those Japanese official dates, it's really a bit like what I described in the chapter, where two people meet for dinner, often bringing their parents along, and get to know each other to decide whether they want to marry. Sometimes there may even be several suitors present, and more often than not, like with most marriages that are not based on love, the whole thing's primarily about money. It's not that common anymore today, of course, but back when Inuyasha last stayed in Japan in my story most marriages were settled that way. Omai is the way I know it to be romanized (does this word exist? My stupid spellchecker doesn't seem to think so, but it also doesn't know the word spellchecker, the poor, confused thing, so I'll forgive it.) , I didn't look it up in a dictionary, though.

On a random side not, has anyone of you read 'Everything is illuminated' by Jonathan Safran Foer? That was the best book since 'Howl's moving castle' and most definitely the Saddest (Yes, with a capital S) book I've ever read. I would have cried if I still could, it's heartbreaking. Read it, if you think you can bare it, because it's also very beautiful.

Oh and leave a review on the way, if you got the time...


	12. Blood and Bile

A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale

Chapter 10

Blood and Bile

Disclaimer: I don't own the series Inuyasha

OOO

OO

O

OO

OOO

Living a life during which pain had been a rather common experience Inuyasha had later, when he learned of it, wondered about masochism. If one spends roughly one hundred and fifty years telling himself there were pains he could ignore and pains he couldn't ignore yet, the idea that there might be people enjoying it was... hard to grasp.

But, when his consciousnessleft his counterpart's wrecked body and the pain finally stopped he thought that this might just be it, the reason why one would voluntarily submit themselves to harm. The bliss he felt when the feeling that his flesh was being carved from his bones with several wooden teaspoons ceased was probably more orgasmic than any actual climax he'd ever - well maybe not ever... no, definitely not ever, but it sure had been a long time - had. Because the strange drug that madman of a factory owner had injected into him had inflicted a kind of pain that he couldn't even dare hope to be able to ignore one day. He had a feeling that day would have to be the day he went completely insane.

'I need a drink,' he observed.

That whiny girl was still crying when he manifested in his usual form and hugged him some as soon as he was solid enough, which was OK though, Inuyasha was willing to admit, 'cause for once he, too, was a little shaken.

That Sango chick was not to be seen and the lecher monk for once had the tact to stay back until Kagome had calmed down ... ish. She actually stopped crying to get hopping mad and, surprisingly, direct her anger towards someone who wasn't him. Miroku took her abuse with a sort of apologetic face and no migraine ridden goddesses popped up to smite her for all those distinctly voiced intense emotions. Inuyasha was torn between joining the yell fest, since what he could make out in between her shrieks was valid enough, and leaning back to enjoy the show.

Well, that Sango bitch _had_ all but thrown them into the dimension head first, without such helpful information as the name of the factory, or the fact that said factory was heavily guarded, or that its owner was a sadistic nutcase... And yes, for once, Inuyasha was willing to admit that what they had thus been forced to do to their counterpart's lives had left them beyond repair, and that was wrong! But, oddly enough, Inuyasha just didn't feel particularly mad about it... he felt an almost serene calm... and why were his hands trembling like that? And were those rapidly growing black dots shoving into his vision?

'Aw crap,' he thought when his knees gave away. 'Don't tell me I'm in shock. How ridiculous.'

He still refused to believe it when he came to again, and so when Kagome, who wasn't yelling anymore but fussing about him and helping him stand, asked what had made him faint he only grunted something about exhaustion, although that was hardly less embarrassing, especially because she obviously didn't buy it. He still felt decidedly better though. And adequately pissed off, too. Luckily for him, Miroku then decided that it was time to present to them a, as he said, "more than sufficient overview on the circumstances you will encounter in pursuit of the next piece of the sacred jewel" and darkened the room while conjuring, once again, the hologram table.

Inuyasha rushed to sit down, glad for the distraction. And Kagome followed, hopefully postponing any further intrusivenesses until he'd come up with a better excuse. Miroku began elaborating: "This mission will be, in a way, one of the most difficult ones, at least from a moralistic point of view. Taking the shard from its owners might cause considerable harm to a lot of people, but you'll agree that in relation to the inevitability of a universal collapse that is a price one must be willing to pay.

"Right, now about the specifics of the dimension. You surely are familiar with so called 'Fantasy novels', or rather, 'Gothic novels', and their usual cast? Like werewolves, vampires and whatnot?"

At their nods he continued, "Well, this dimension has all of these, and more. Technologically its societies are far beyond what scientists of your dimension could possibly imagine, but that is also partly because spiritual energy, magic, for lack of a better term, has been part of their development from the very beginning. The sociological and political system of the area you are going to travel is, well, patriarchal, parliamentary monarchism, with a strong executive arm. There'll be lots of police and civil militia around, patrolling the streets, especially at night.

"As I said, this dimension has Undead, and they have become quite a menace to the human population in recent years. Larger cities, such as the one where the shard will be found, thus have installed large protective ban circles around major parts of the city. These ban circles are usually based on a sacred object, such as a reliquary or any object that has been prayed to and worshiped over a period of time. In your target city, the ban circle is especially large and effective because it is based on the shard of the Shikon no Tama. You probably see where this is heading: As soon as you take the shard, the barrier will collapse and leave the city unprotected until a new object is found.

"What you could attempt to do is persuade the city's official magicians to replace the shard, a process during which the barrier can be maintained, but with the social status of your counterparts and our rather tight schedule that is superfluous as it will prove fruitless. Therefore SHE asks you to just 'go ahead and take it'.

"Which leads me to the next point: Your counterparts and how you'll meet and recognize each other. Your counterpart, Kagome, is a... woman of negotiable affection if you catch my meaning."

Kagome shook her head puzzledly.

"He means she's a whore," Inuyasha was glad to explain.

Miroku nodded. "Indeed."

"Oh." Kagome shrugged. "OK," which left Inuyasha a little disappointed. What with the way she'd always freak out as soon as a situation allowed a sexual interpretation you'd think she was concerned about modesty enough to at least blush at that.

"Your counterpart, Inuyasha, is a young man living in the rural area near the city."

"A peasant?"

"Not quite. Anyway, the shard is situated in a chapel that is part of the council house in the city's center and is heavily guarded. It should still be possible to get in there unseen, if you put your minds to it."

A hologram flared up, the blueprint of a building.

"The main entrances are guarded, windows and the supply door for the kitchens are not -" several parts of the drawing, the ones that symbolized windows and one that symbolized a door lit up red. "All in all, security inside the city wall is rather lax, they feel safe inside their barrier. Once you've gotten inside the building, there should be no one bothering you. Now, the chapel is on the third basement floor, the staircase is right here." Another door flared up. "Up to there, things should run smoothly. The stairs leading down are automatic, though, and as soon as they're in use after the building is officially closed, an alarm goes off in the security guard's booth. So make sure you don't touch it on the way down, it should be possible."

The blueprint changed.

"This is the third basement floor. The chapel itself-" an area of four rooms lit up "- is guarded, there's only one man but he's not what you should worry about, it's the alarm button he sits right next to. Get him down before he hits it or you'll only have four minutes before the place is crowded with police and militia forces."

The blueprint disappeared to be replaced by a detailed map of a city.

"The council house lies in the center of the city, right here," one of the buildings on the map changed color. "You, Kagome, should be taking over your counterpart's mind when she's around this area, " in the northwest of the city two intersecting streets and the area surrounding them flared up. Not sure if I interpreted this correctly. 2 streets cross and the streets in one of the angles light up? 

"You'll be somewhere outside the city of course, Inuyasha, someplace west of it if I am not mistaken, but I presume that you'll find your way easily enough; the land is flat and the city is huge. The guards that watch the gates should let you through without a fuss once you've passed the barrier. The barrier works in such a way that it detects and repels people with malicious intent, so make sure you're not thinking anything wicked while you're passing." Miroku chuckled, lecherously. "Seriously, though. The barrier does not go by your thoughts but by your heart. The Undead tend to have in their hearts the urge to still their hunger on human flesh or blood, a bit of a narcissistic superiority complex and a sadistic streak, too. The barrier detects all. So, even if they really make an effort to feel 'good' feelings while passing the barrier they're repelled. The same goes for humans, by the way. The barrier does not discriminate species. There are, of course, exceptions. For example if one matter, urge or feeling were to out weigh the bloodlust. But since the only reason an Undead would want to enter the city is to feed on humans, the barrier is, all in all, rather effective. However, it only checks those passing through, not those already inside. So it does not actually prevent murder or criminality in general, even though its creators claim that." Miroku shrugged. "But then again, those things are only human.

"As a place of meeting I suggest this small square here -" the hologram zoomed in on the area that was marked as likely for Kagome's counterpart's location and indeed, the two larger roads met in a square. "There's quite a high chance that you, Kagome, will already be in that square or close to it, since that square is not referred to as 'The Cleft' without a reason.

"Now, your counterpart looks like this -" and the map disappeared to be replaced by the slowly turning 3D picture of a woman dressed in a strange, broad collared, black dress held together in the front by a single button on her belly button. Auburn hair was piled onto her head and she'd donned quite a lot of the stuff women used to tint their cheeks red. Inuyasha was at a loss for words. Miroku gave a lecherous chuckle.

"Whooh," Kagome said at last, after seconds of silence, and she voiced Inuyasha's feelings with that, too. "She's actually wearing that? Right." A few seconds passed during which the hologram shifted from one foot to the other, briefly displaying a dark patch on her crotch that might have been underwear and might just not.

"Nevermind. What's _he_ gonna look like?" Kagome asked then.

The woman kept on turning.

"Well?" Inuyasha urged. If this counterpart was going to be a wimp like all the previous ones...

Finally, Miroku tore his eyes from the 3D pin up and another image flared up. Inuyasha thought he heard a strangled gasp from Kagome but really didn't know what she was so surprised about.

At least this guy was tall, very tall if the scale of this image was the same as the one before. His face was a little girlish but that didn't mean anything. Inuyasha himself was the disgruntled owner of a baby face and could quite easily lift a van. Well, and with his shirt gaping open like that it was quite plain to see that his counterpart was kind of muscular. But he was also still human.

"Coulda been worse," Inuyasha admitted.

Kagome shot him a look that he failed to interpret and then hastily turned away. Right.

The image faded and Miroku conjured the map again. "You'll probably enter through the west gate of the city wall, or one of the other gates close to that one." Several spots in the city wall, a line that ran in a quasi circle through the whole area of the city lit up in the west."No matter where you enter really, you'll hit Gate Street, a main road that follows the arc of the city wall, soon enough. There you'll most certainly meet someone you can ask for the way to 'Cleft Square'. They'll think you're a young lad looking for a good time and show you, I'm sure." The image died and the room lit up again. Miroku leaned back in his chair. "That's it, I think. Any questions?"

"Yes, well, if I'm not in that... square, how do I find the way?" Kagome asked.

Miroku shrugged. "Best not ask someone of your counterpart's profession, lest you accidentally ask someone your counterpart knows and arouse suspicion. Just walk until you hit either Glory Road or Kidney Way, those are the streets crossing at said square, there should be street signs, and follow the general drift of the 'clients, or if you are really lost, ask one of them.'. You'll both arrive in the dimension at dusk, so there should be some people around the city."

"How long do you think it'll take me to get into the city? Just so she knows when to take action on her own, you know, if I can't enter or get killed on the way."

Kagome snorted. "Always assuming the worst, aren't you?"

"Yeah, that's called being realistic. One of us has to be, don't you think?"

"Being optimistic is not being unrealistic. It's being willing to see that everything's not lost right from the start. And that there is always something that can be done to help things along."

"An hour, maybe more, I should think," Miroku cut saving Inuyasha from an embarrassing lack of response to that. Damn the woman.

"But with the territory outside you never know. It could just as easily take you half the night. Just stay where you are, Kagome. Should something fatal happen, we'll take you out of the dimension again. Of course, that would be very unfortunate; you know why. Anything else?"

Kagome shook her head. "No. I mean I don't have a clue about the directions to the council house anymore, with how briefly you showed that map, but I guess he does anyway, so it's OK," she nodded towards Inuyasha.

"Sure," he agreed, a bit stupefied.

"Excellent!" Miroku eagerly let the rings on his staff jingle. "Now who wants to go in first?"

OOO

OO

O

OO

OOO

Taking over his counterpart's mind was strange, as usual, but at least this one was sitting down through the process. Inuyasha glanced around as soon as his eyes worked. The room he was in strangely reminded him of his... apartment, for lack of a better term, back in Berlin. It was rather small and untidy, and a thick black curtain blocked out any light from the outside. The furniture was strange, and not as futuristic looking, by far, as he'd expected from a world of unimaginable technological standard. Then again, neither were the clothes he was wearing, nor those of Kagome's counterpart. He wasn't all that sure about cultural history but they had a kind of baroquish feel to it, unlike the vampire stories he knew, that, in accordance to Bram Stoker, took place during the Victorian era. But he'd be damned before he started giving a shit about fashion.

There was only a small lamp spreading gloomy light but Inuyasha could see very clearly, so at least this counterpart had acceptable night vision; handy since they would have to sneak around a city by nighttime. The sense of smell was lacking, of course, but probably still good for a human. His hearing was ridiculous but – he bent and jumped – at least his counterpart was flexible and fit.This was a body he could actually work with.

He searched the room and the bedroom and bathroom to the left, the whole apartment it seemed, for a weapon or something to use as such but came up with nothing. In the end he kicked off two of the heavy wooded posts of his counterpart's large four poster bed and stuffed them into the conveniently large inside pockets of the dark, billowing coat he found lying on the floor beside the bed.

Feeling slightly reassured, he left the room through the other door and stepped out into a dark, short corridor that ended in a staircase leading upwards. As soon as he stepped on the first step, it began slowly moving upwards, carrying him past several corridors until he jumped off the step and in front of another door. He entered a larger, just as dimly lit room that was probably the foyer of the apartment house his counterpart lived in. There were four people, all around his counterpart's age, one sitting behind a counter and talking to another, another pair lounging in armchairs that were grouped around a coffee table. Everyone looked at him when he closed the door behind himself and he nodded a greeting, assuming they were acquaintances of his counterpart. He headed to the two winged entrance door but the guy standing at the counter called out to him.

"Oi, Nathael, what're you up to? Have you forgotten about our party tonight?"

Inuyasha whacked his brain for something noncommittal to say. "I'll just go out for a while, y'know, I'll be back in time,of course," he drawled in the end.

"Whatever. See ya," the guy turned back to his pal behind the counter. Just as well. Inuyasha stepped out of the door.

The sight outside was curious. When that bouzu had talked about 'rural' areas Inuyasha had imagined just that; fields, farms, and perhaps even a forest. But, obviously all rural meant in this dimension was that the houses didn't stand as close as inside the cities. Not a tree to be seen. To his left he could make out a bulky shadow before the horizon overhung with clouds lit from beneath. That would have to be the actual city. The street leading there was, as far as he could see, broad, straight and even, but also looked as if it wasn't actually in frequent use.

Suddenly something shot past him, a carriage of some kind probably, but it was reduced to another shadow with two flickering orange eyes of light within seconds. It was probably not that bad an idea to keep off the street, Inuyasha observed.

The run to the city was uneventful, surprisingly enough, and if it hadn't been for the occasional sheen behind the tightly shut iron shutters brimming with strange runes Inuyasha would have thought that every house he passed was deserted. But it figured that people would stay inside after sunset, if they really had trouble with the Undead around here, and if it was true that those couldn't stand sunlight.

The carriage to pass him was the only one he met on the way, which made him wonder. With a city as large as the one ahead, you'd think the streets leading there would be stuffed with cars. Was that, too, because of the undead problems? Mayb – well, not that it mattered.

So little distraction did his way offer that his thoughts kept trailing off, towards that stupid, overly sensitive girl who thought she knew it all, had him figured out. All that crap about him having no self respect, ridiculous! He was still alive, after all, wasn't he? And dying had more often than not, by far, been the easier way to go... aw, wait, crap, he was dead... well, but that wasn't the damn point, anyway. He _did_ respect himself, of course he did, exactly as much as he deserved... which wasn't all that much, granted... come to think of it he _was_ a wreck. Had he really choked on his own vomit back there? It had sounded kinda funny at first, cool almost, since a lot of cool people seemed to have kicked the bucket that way, but if you left that out and just faced the facts it was actually a very... pitiful way to go...

No! What did that little bitch think she was doing, anyway? Acting like he mattered to her, doing and saying those little things that made him feel cared for when it was obvious that he really was just a means to an end for her? An unpleasant but necessary tool she had no choice but to use to get her life back. The nerve of her, really. There he was, doing exactly what he was supposed to do, which seemed to be getting ripped apart on a daily basis to save her ass and get the shards, and she _complained_ about it, the fucking nerve of her!

Only when his fist dented the iron entrance door of the house he'd come to seethe in front of and magic scorched his hand and panicked screams sounded from inside did Inuyasha realize what a state he'd worked himself into. And all because of that stupid girl. He shook his head, called an absentminded "Sorry," and hurried off.

'Gods, I fucking need a drink,' he thought, licking his burnt knuckles. It just couldn't be healthy to feel that much after years of carefully nourished apathy. He would not let her get to him anymore he decided then.

How long had he been standing there, anyway?

Even in the outskirts of the city, no one was about, actually, the first people he saw were the two men dressed in a red uniform that stood besides an arched gateway in a tall wall that was probably the city wall. He approached them with what he hoped as an air of innocent insecurity and they bought it.

All in all it couldn't have taken him more than forty minutes to get inside the barrier give, or take the few minutes he'd spent standing in front of that house. Still, he felt a little drained, and dead thirsty, more so than his counterpart's physique had led him to assume he'd feel after such an easy jog.

Well, at least Kagome wouldn't have to wait very long. What with her counterpart working in that business, Inuyasha couldn't help but be a tad worried about her, out of professional interest, certainly. But still, a woman that'd do more or less anything for money had a strange allure for all sorts of creeps, he knew out of first hand experience. After all, throwing said creeps out and patrolling the streets for them had been his job a couple of years ago.

Still following the road straight on he did indeed soon hit another broad one, lined with houses and shops in succession and a dark paved sidewalk. The difference between life inside and outside the barrier was quite obvious. The shutters on the houses were open, people were about and strolling down the road, occasionally throwing glances into the brightly lit showcases of the shops. Inuyasha turned left since the brothel quarter lay in the northeast of the city, and hurried on. He waited until he met a likely looking guy to ask for directions and the man, cheeks red with busted capillaries, grinningly explained the way and sent him of with a slap on the back. So much for that; Miroku had been right.

Entering the streets where red light seemed to be first choice, he felt strangely at home. Well, he had worked in the business for quite some time, until he'd been kicked out, allegedly for nicking too much booze from the bar. He'd really been kinda sad to go at the time, for all he felt wronged by the accusation since he surely could not be expected to deal with those loads of freaks on a sober mind.

The homey feeling lost itself after a few paces though, because between the cheap, plastic appeal of late seventies whoredom, where heroin seemed to be lurking behind every corner, and the voluptuous glamour of the ladies standing in the doorways and occasionally calling out to him lay, well, quite literally, a whole dimension. And the dresses theywore, it was strange, maybe it was in fashion because of the imminent danger of vampire attacks but they all seemed to designed to draw attention to the neck.

In the square, the stream of people flocked into a loose crowd where for every pair that left, a new woman and a new desperate man ? seemed to appear. Still, spotting Kagome was easy enough; she stood huddled in a doorway and was the only woman in the square not beckoning anyone to her. When he was close enough to smell her he was confused for a second, but then, under layers of perfume, yesterday's sex and some indistinguishable heaviness, yup, there it was, female sweat of that unique spice and, for some reason, sunlight.

He was about to call out to her when suddenly another woman pushed herself in front of him. "Hey there, fella," she rasped, "forget that one. She's being picky tonight. Says she's waiting for someone. She'd probably even flip off a handsome one like you - " but he shoved her aside.

"No thanks, I've made my pick," he joked, and Kagome looked up.

"Inuyasha?"

"Yeah. Let's go somewhere quiet, alright?" and he was pleased to see her blush under the crackling layers of paint on her face. She _was_ a prude; he knew it. All it took was a little innuendo to tickle it out of her- damn. He was not letting her get to him anymore, that should probably include the urge to tease her.

They left on Glory Road and took another turn into a tiny street that was more of a gap between two houses.

"Alright," Kagome started as soon as they were sufficiently hidden in the shadows and out of hearing range. "People in this city are so paranoid, it's not funny. Did you see all those signs and posters on the walls?"

Actually, he hadn't. But, well, that dress of her counterpart was designed to distract.

"They were all about how to recognize vampires and werewolves, and what to do if you encountered one. But if people actually listened to that stuff, they'd have to call the guards every time they met someone hairy or someone tired looking with very fair skin -"

Either because they were stuffed rather closely together or because of the old joke that if you're told _not _to think about polar bears you can't think of anything else for days, not letting Kagome get to him was getting increasingly hard to do. What did her counterpart think she was doing, wearing a dress like that? His mouth felt so dry. And that black choker? It made the kittenishly fast pulsating of the artery under her almost translucent skin all the more obvious. Hypnotizing, really. Through the thunder in his ears and the sound of his own rapid breathing her voice sounded muffled.

"I mean, if _I _took all that seriously, I'd have to call the guards this instant. You look as if you haven't slept in a year and are a white as a bed sheet..." she cocked her head and reached out a hand to his face. "Are you alright, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha was far from all right. He was rigid with shock. It couldn't be, right? He'd passed the barrier without trouble, hadn't he? It had to be something else!

On its own accord, his hand gripped hers and he pulled her wrist to his face. He could feel the lively heat of her skin and the blood gushing right underneath it. The hair on her arm suddenly rose in goose bumps and ever so softly tickled the skin of his lips as it swayed in the quickened rhythm her heart set. He felt a chuckle rise in his throat. She was turned on by this, the little minx, barely a drop of fear in her scent, but confusion and hesitant arousal. This'd be a fun one-

"Inuyasha? What are you doing?"

Her trembling voice splashed over him like a bucket of ice cold water. What was he- No! He dropped her wrist and stumbled sidewards. It couldn't be, why hadn't that bouzu _told_ them?

"What's the matter with you?" she asked and reached that cursed hand out again. He needed to get away from her this instant!

"Wait here, I'll be back," he choked out, biting his tongue when his fangs suddenly elongated. "Don't ask, just stay."

On instinct he jumped up and didn't even wonder when he stayed afloat, just urged himself upwards, over the roofs and away from her voice calling his name in angry confusion.

He came to rest on a roof some streets further, or rather, crashed into it, since landing was a bit difficult when you hadn't known you could fly seconds before. He caught a tile that was threatening to fall and tried to think reasonably through the haze of hunger and lust in his head. How was this possible? How could Miroku not have told them his counterpart was a fucking vampire! What should he do now? He'd have to get that bloodlust under control before he could return to Kagome; that much was clear. The sound of laughter flew up to his perch on the roof and the instinct roared up again. He reasoned the only solution; he'd have to drink someone else's blood, still the hunger, then he could face Kagome again. Or could he? How long would it last, anyway? What if the urge returned while they were down in the cellar of that council house and there'd be no-one around except her?

That Miroku sure was in for some murder as soon as they were out of this dimension.

Would he be able to control it, maybe? Rush through weakly lit alleys with her; watch perspiration create a wet sheen on the fair skin of her neck... Inuyasha swallowed as saliva gathered in his mouth. Fat chance of that happening, his eyes crossed from the mental picture alone. With her running around in that dress, it was already hard enough to pretend some of his less supernatural and more male urges didn't exist. How was he supposed to cope with these monstrous ones?

But going and killing some unlucky passerby to feed on the blood would mean reducing himself to the animal he'd always suspected was hidden somewhere inside him. No, the one he _knew_ was hidden somewhere inside him, hadn't it shown its ugly face back then? The one he'd been running from for a good part of his adolescent life...

A faint scream ripped him back just before he fell down the cliff in his mind he usually was very careful to stay clear of. Where'd that come from? Could it have been Kagome? Leaving her and telling her to stay put was asking for trouble with her tendency to do the exact opposite of anything he told her to he realized.

He ran and jumped across the roofs. The scream _had_ come from the direction of the street where he'd left her.

And indeed, true to her trouble magnet nature, she'd somehow managed to get some creep to spot her in the shadows and try to go a round for free. Although the poor sod was probably already regretting his decision with the way she kept ramming her elbow into his stomach and biting the hand he'd clasped over her mouth. Not that Inuyasha felt particularly sorry for him. He jumped from the roof above and landed silently behind the man. His hand went out before he really knew what he was doing, just like before, and gripped th eman's neck. Inuyasha broke it with a flick of his wrist.

Kagome tumbled to the ground when her attacker suddenly let go of her and scrambled away a bit before turning.

A chorus of a thousand voices howled and screeched in his head for him to go ahead and still the craving; her questioning voice failed to break through. He jumped up, the corpse dangling from his hand, and landed on another roof, where he proved to himself all over again that if there was one thing he was lacking, it was self restraint. He would have killed himself right on the spot, but the split second of calm afterwards was heavenly, better perhaps than the moment when his mind shut down after he'd drunk a sufficient amount of booze, and lasted just long enough for him to realize that if he was a monstrous beast anyway, he could at least try and not be a cowardly one.

He made sure to wipe his mouth carefully before he jumped down to Kagome again. She looked up when he crouched down at a safe distance.

"Is your counterpart... " she began hesitantly.

"Yes, how cunningly observed. I'm a vampire," Inuyasha spat out when all that self hatred inside him found the next best outlet.

"Oh my god! Why didn't Miroku tell us? Is he mad? Who knows what could have happened?"

He knew. He'd been so close, so close to - "I fucking took care of it, quit worrying. You're safe for the moment," he hissed.

"But if you'd been recognized, you could have been killed! There are patrols all over the city, it says on the posters. Who knows what they'd do to a vampire who's gotten past their barrier?"

The turmoil soothed for a second, then flared up with twice the force. There she was again, pretending she cared about him when all she was really concerned about was the Shikon shard. But he shouldn't let her get to him anymore. He wouldn't let her get to him anymore. He wouldn't. With an effort he could almost feel physically, he shoved his emotions down until the thought of continuing to live was just disgusting, not impossible.

"It's late enough now; let's go find that council house."

"Inuyasha?" that cursed hand of hers descended towards his shoulder. He beat it away.

"Don't fucking touch me! I hate it, I told you – come on now, I know where to go."

And he marched off, so briskly that she only caught up with him several streets later, way beyond the red light district. He felt her eyes on him even though he could absolutely not face her and he didn't dare imagine what she thought of him now. Thankfully, she stayed silent through the whole march; she didn't even say a word when he dropped his coat on her shoulders saying her dress was drawing to much attention. Which was true. Everyone they passed ogled her as if they'd never seen a square centimeter of female flesh before.

The council house was right where it was supposed to be according to the plan, and getting inside unseen was beyond easy. Everything ran smoothly, but still required just enough of his attention to dull that trembling ache and the raging disgust. They exchanged a few words on the question of how to get down the stairs without touching them and in the end Inuyasha was forced to give in, yet again, and carry her down as he floated. But, although her neck still looked delicious any urges he felt were completely drained out by the sheer horror of what had happened earlier. The corridors downstairs lay in darkness except for one, the one leading to the chapel. They retreated into the room at the foot of the staircase and discussed the possibilities in whispers.

Inuyasha was beginning to feel kind of stupid facing away from her all the time but the thought of what her gaze might tell him about himself was terrifying. At last, when she suggested, "I could walk in there in this dress and try to distract him long enough for you to -" he whipped around.

But the anxiety of what might come made him forget he meant to declare her insane and his eyes came to rest on the wall behind her. There was something expectant about her sudden silence and it made him draw his eyes, ever so slowly, to her face. Where he was greeted with the very last expression he'd expected, a smile.

"It's alright," she explained, with a serene certainty that made her look a lot older than her counterpart was. Inuyasha was about to ask what she was talking about but then thought better of it. Intrusive as she was, she'd probably guessed what he was about.

"It fucking is not, I -" he attempted.

She shook her head. "It's alright because you didn't want to."

How ridiculous. What did she know! About losing control like that, about waking and not knowing why one was plastered in blood, about hearing the muffled memory that was no conscious memory of his, a flashback of agonized screams, every time he tried to sleep. What did she fucking know!

"You have no fucking idea what-"

"That's right, I don't. I didn't say I had, did I? I can not even begin to imagine what it's like to – but if you're feeling this horrible about it, it can't have been anything I'd want to imagine anyway. But that you're this broken up about it also means that you really, really didn't want to do it, . and if you're feeling as sorry for this as you seem to be, then that doesn't make the thing itself better, but it also doesn't make it something you have to hate yourself for. You could try to forgive yourself, somehow... I think."

"What are you, a priest? There's nothing to forgive, don't tell me you feel sorry for that creep! He was trying to rape you, wasn't he?"

And, she looked hurt, which puzzled him even more than her strangely thoughtful ideas, but her expression lasted only for a second. Then she just looked angry. Inuyasha almost sighed in relief. That was something he could cope with, not all this strange talk and understanding. How was he supposed to not let her get to him if she was acting like that?

"Fine, be that way," she snapped.

"I am."

"Fine."

"Yeah."

"Now, about that guard, have you come up with something better yet?" she said in a voice that didn't even sound angry anymore. And still, Inuyasha felt more uncomfortable than before. As if she was observing him closely, in search of what, he didn't know.

"No, I mean I tried some of the- " he was careful not to let his voice waver, "vampire stuff, like dissolving into fog and morphing with shadows or shifting shapes but nothing worked."

"So are we gonna do it my way then?"

"No way, that's idiotic. He'll press the button as soon as someone's in sight, I'm sure."

"Well, what then?"

They both lapsed into silence to think, but Inuyasha's thoughts wouldn't do as they were told. They kept contemplating her stupid and naive words. Forgiving himself the unforgivable, a complete loss of self restraint? The very idea...

"This is kinda dangerous too, but it might work," Kagome interrupted his thoughts.

"Hn?"

"Well, as a vampire you're probably very fast, aren't you? And the corridor is not very long. And he won't expect anything to happen, right? Maybe you can just outrun his reaction. Knock him down before he presses the button. You think that'd work?"

He'd been so focused on the more supernatural aspects of vampirism that he'd forgotten about the almost natural physical superiority. As a hanyou, in his usual body, he probably could have the man unconscious before he'd even seen him; maybe this wretched vampire body was capable of something similar.

"It might. It's the best idea so far."

"Then do it," she urged impatiently.

"Alright, alright."

In the end it seemed they needn't have worried. The man was busy reading a newspaper and didn't even look up before he was down. There was another barrier around the chapel itself but it didn't seem to regard their wanting to collect the shard as malicious intent. But those barriers were crap anyway, had to be, since they'd so completely failed to detect the savage beast inside him.

The altar standing at the back of the room was alight with a pinkish glow that seemed to intensify as Kagome drew nearer. The whole basis of that huge ban circle seemed to be a simple chalk drawing with the shard lying at its center. The smaller circle next to it, drawn around what looked like a tooth, probably was the one responsible for the barrier around the chapel.

They stood in silence for a minute or so, and Inuyasha was sweating with discomfort at the how tense it was.

"Go ahead, take it. That guy won't be unconscious forever," Inuyasha blurted out at last, just to say anything at all.

Kagome looked up to him with a frown. "There's something I want to try to maintain that circle before we destroy it completely," she explained.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "It's not like there's anything I can do to keep you from trying."

She stuck out her tongue at him, but then she turned towards the altar again, her face slack with obvious concentration.

She took the tooth out of the smaller circle, they both tensed, but nothing happened. Then she cradled it in her palms and closed her eyes. Minutes seemed to pass and Inuyasha grew restless. He took a look at the watchman and bound and gagged him with stripes of his clothing, just to be sure.Kagome hadn't moved when he returned. Suddenly she breathed out exasperatedly and opened her eyes.

"Alright, it won't work this way." She looked at him in a very strange and calculating way. Then, in an even stranger voice, said, "I'd really rather that Miroku be my partner for these missions than someone as... " she opened and closed her mouth several times, "as stupid as you!"

Inuyasha was at a serious loss for words. What had gotten into her all of a sudden? Maybe that tooth had made her go insane somehow? Why else would she go and say something like – wait... him, stupid?

"That's interesting, because if I look back at what's happened so far I'm kinda inclined to say _you_'ve been acting stupid all of the time!" he snapped.

She looked irritated for a second, but then she suddenly giggled, laughed.

"What's so-"

"I'm sorry, Inuyasha." she explained in between chuckles. "You remember what Sango said about my ki? That it had to be triggered by intense emotions? I thought if we started a fight I'd be able to work some magic here, but that's just stupid. And you're not, by the way."

Her laughter was magic in itself, had to be. Because Inuyasha couldn't help but laugh with her although there had been few times in his crap life when he'd felt as little like laughing as right then. That was why she sounded so strange. How stupid indeed.

As tense as the mood had been, it unloaded as abruptly and explosively. Why else would they erupt into such convulsions over something that was hardly worth a laugh?

"It's ri-diculous, really-" Kagome giggled. "We seem to be fighting all the time -"

"But the one time we need to, we can't," Inuyasha finished.

"Oh, there it is! Laughter seems to work, too," Kagome cried out suddenly, and indeed, as his chuckles slowed Inuyasha saw the same pink light erupt from her hands that tore apart the snake youkai, only this time there was something soft and... beautiful about it.

Kagome's ki seeped into the tooth until it was glowing more intensely than the altar with the shard, and Inuyasha understood what she was trying to do. She wanted to pour as much of her own holy powers into the artifact as possible, to create a basis for the barrier that was at least close to the power the shard gave it. 'Not bad,' he admitted. He actually wondered when she'd come up with that. In the split second after she took the shard and before she placed the tooth in its stead, Inuyasha thought he felt some kind of weight lift from the atmosphere, only to return with twice the force when the magical circle was complete again. But, that might just have been his imagination.

Kagome swayed a little when she turned to him and before Inuyasha knew what he was doing, he'd gripped her elbow to steady her, only to jerk his hand back when he realized.

"That might have been a bit too much of my energy," Kagome slurred tiredly and then slumped against him. A bit unsure what to do with the now unconscious girl with the still offensively sleek neck, Inuyasha decided that fresh air might help and carried her up and out again unhindered, flying over some roofs until he found a large and not so steep one.

She came to after a while, a bit disoriented at first, but rapidly regaining her sharp mouth when he berated her about overexerting herself when she knew they needed her to get out of the dimension again, Her, in comparison to former outbursts, slight anger was enough to kick her remaining powers into gear and add the shard to the collection in her chest.

Inuyasha had the presence of mind to carry her down to the streets while she faded and attempted to get his counterpart's body outside of the barrier lest he... do things after Inuyasha's mind released what little control he had over the bestial bloodlust. He got well beyond the city wall when the last of his consciousness faded, much to his relief.

He gained existence in the interdimension to see Kagome unconscious again and strangely translucent, too. That soon-to-be-dead-a-second-time lecher of a supposed monk was hovering over her, way closer than was acceptable. Juust as Inuyasha leaped to do some killing he would not feel monstrous for, that cursed Sango bitch appeared and swept the monk out of his reach.

"Before you express your, I'll admit, momentarily why momentarily? fully justified anger, know that this time he acted on my orders."

Inuyasha shrugged. "So it's you who's gonna suffer. I don't care. You fucking should have _told_ me!"

Sango rolled her eyes. "As amusing as your threats are, we didn't tell you for a reason, and a valid one."

"Can't wait to hear how you'll justify _that,_" Inuyasha pressed out between clenched teeth. The fucking nerve of that bitch! To claim there was a reason to be found in all of the universes that justified breaking up parts of his mind and memory he'd locked and nailed up completely for exactly twenty two years, eleven months and twenty six days. And to indirectly endanger Kagome's real life that she clung to so, by endangering her counterpart's life, Inuyasha saw that as the outrage it was even if the girl wasn't getting to him anymore.

"You wouldn't have been able to pass the barrier had you known you were a vampire," Sango started.

"Exactly," Miroku supplied from his perch close to the ceiling of the familiar living room Sango seemed to prefer. "Had you known you were a vampire, do you deny you would have tried to identify the expected bloodlust? And be it just to find a way to suppress it, you still would have been conscious of that desire, and perhaps the need to find Kagome as soon as possible, which was probably what allowed you through in the first place, would not have been the first thing on your mind and heart anymore. We couldn't risk that. And in the end, what difference would it have made if you had known?"

"A fucking big one," Inuyasha assured fiercely, although the urge to kill both of them had abated to the very much normal urge to whack Miroku for being a lecher and stick his tongue out at Sango when she wasn't looking. _Maybe_ they were right. Maybe. Probably. It wouldn't have made much of a difference at all, Inuyasha concluded at last, since the problem didn't really lie with the vampiric nature of his counterpart but with his very own monstrous abnormality. So, they were probably fucking right, those full themselves bastards.

Still, he'd rather chew off his own ears before he'd trust another word they said.

Then Kagome, who'd grown more solid during the last minutes, came to her senses again. Convincing her of Sango and Miroku's more or less good intentions proved surprisingly more difficult than convincing Inuyasha. She yelled bloody murder at them and Sango flinched but didn't smite her, and she was only calmed when Inuyasha himself told her to get a grip.

"You mean, you're OK with that? What you went through?" she asked, baffled.

Inuyasha felt uneasy under her familiar scrutiny. Why did she keep doing this, those things that made him feel so... important?

"Sure. T'was nothing," he lied defensively.

Then she looked hurt again, for whatever fucking reasons, but she shut up all the same.

"Right, now that this is settled, shall we proceed?" Miroku asked while he sank down from the ceiling and onto the couch.

Kagome sat down on the armchair next to Sango theatrically; now what the _hell_ was her problem? Inuyasha plopped himself down next to the bouzu, who babbled on immediately.

"In the next dimension you'll be sent to a part of a planet where most of the life takes place on the sea. Your counterpart, Kagome, is a human servant member of the crew of a wolf youkai pirate fleet raiding the northern seas. Your counterpart, Inuyasha, is a husky-hanyou that is part of the raiding crew of the ship. You'll recognize each other easily enough I should think, you're both living on the main ship of the fleet, but just to be sure, this is what you look like."

Two holograms flared into life out of nothing as the light dimmed. One was a man who bore a great resemblance to Inuyasha himself, what with the triangular dog ears, the long white and gray streaked hair and the clearly of Asian heritage, which actually made him the first since that wimp in the school dimension, Inuyasha realized. The other hologram depicted a small but sturdy looking, pretty Inuit woman. Both were dressed in plain, practicable clothing. They turned a few times, then the lights went on again and the pictures disappeared.

"The shard is in the possession of the fleet's captain, a wolf youkai, of course. You'll recognize him by his missing eye and the large hat -"

Kagome and Inuyasha snorted at the same time. Miroku stifled a chuckle himself. "Yes, he's cliché like that, I'm afraid, but he's the only one missing an eye on the whole ship. It's not _really_ that common among pirates to lose body parts like other people lose hair; they need them, you see. Anyway, he's getting old and has quite the alcohol habit; tricking him should be easy enough. You might want to keep an eye open for his eldest son, though. His name's Kouga. He's captain in training and first mate at the moment, and he's... eager. But I'm sure you'll do fine," he finished enthusiastically. "Any questions?"

"Where does the captain keep the shard?" Kagome asked, still very obviously not looking in Inuyasha's direction, which annoyed him increasingly. What was that about?

"On himself, but he puts it down with his clothing when he goes to sleep. The safest way to get your hands on it should be to get him seriously drunk, so he won't wake up when you search his cabin."

"And do our counterparts have any friends on the ship? People we might offend?" Inuyasha wanted to know, half because he didn't want to go through useless hours of righting-the-wrong again, and half because he hoped it'd make Kagome look at him again. Which it did.

"Your counterpart, his name is Han-hu, the pun is, I think, intended, is a bit of an outsider, and he hasn't been around very long, so it won't come as much of a surprise if he doesn't socialize. Your counterpart, Kagome, her name is Su-hine, is one of the only three humans aboard and they keep mainly to themselves. Save for your counterpart, there's the cook, whose name is something unpronounceable, which is why he's usually called Cook, even by his own wife, who is the other human, and is called Haruko. I shouldn't think any other member of the crew knows your counterpart's name. It shouldn't surprise you to be referred to as 'Human' or 'Servant' or something like. Wolf youkai are not above eating humans; the ones they keep around usually have some special skill. The cook can cook, which they can't. The cook's wife can sew, which they hate. Your counterpart is some sort of girl for all purposes, she's good with her hands, which they are, too, but feel that some tasks are just beneath them. She cleans where necessary, helps the cook and his wife, and with repairs on the ship that need a deft hand."

Inuyasha snorted at that and he thought he saw Kagome blanche. So much for her 'conformity is key' crap. She was a total klutz. He'd love to see her 'deftly' repair any part of a ship. She wouldn't make her counterpart look too good.

"Anything else?" Miroku asked. "No? Well then, who wants to go first?"

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Inuyasha came to in a body that was clinging to a plank floating in a rough, fucking ice cold sea. At first, he actually thought Miroku had failed to tell him his counterpart was lacking a lower body, but that part of him was just numb with cold. He desperately tried to peer through the wet hair plastered all over his face but all he saw were hills of salty water, the color of anthracite, flocked with white patches of foam. Then he spotted some boxes floating close by, and more pieces of wood. What the fuck?

Had that lecher failed to tell them that the ship they were supposed to live on had just sunk? And what did that mean for Kagome? In a bout of panic, Inuyasha tried to heave himself onto the plank to gain a better overview but he felt very weak and kept slipping. Still, he didn't give up until his forearms were spiky with splinters and he felt close to unconsciousness.

Well, whatever was going on, if something didn't happen soon, his stay in this dimension would be a short one. It wouldn't be long till he froze to death.

Suddenly a yell sounded over the howling wind and before he could twist to search for its source, a massive shadow fell over him. Then, accompanied by another yell, something hard hit his head and knocked his head into his life-plank. He felt his arms give from the shock and the below freezing cold water swallowed him up.

'I'm going to hate this dimension,' was his last thought before the water closed over him.


	13. More Blood, and Booze

A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale

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Chapter 13

More Blood, Birds and Booze

Disclaimer: Don't own it.

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Kagome braced herself for the onslaught of bitter cold she thought was sure to come, since the ship sailed the northern seas. Luckily, she was burning with a livid fire of ire that would sufficiently warm more than one person, or, on second thought, burn certain people to whimpering ashes. Why was he so... like that! Who did he think he was fooling, pretending what had happened in that dimension wasn't bothering him? Because it was plain to see it did, even to someone who didn't really know him. This, Kagome sighed, was probably the core of her anger, not Inuyasha himself. If she didn't know Inuyasha, it certainly wasn't because she hadn't made some pitiful attempts at getting to know him. And every time she thought a little progress might have been made he said and did things that didn't fit her picture of him at all. Which created a whole other picture, that of someone either very moody or unstable... or both.

She was certainly very curious about him, or nosy, as he would have put it, but it wasn't every day that an averageling like herself met someone who was that different. And that wasn't about his mixed heritage but about the long life he lived, and the miracle that he managed to stay so, well, immature through it, or the reasons why he was so violent, and somehow seemed so haunted at times, or why he thought so little of himself. Right. Maybe she was being overly curious, just maybe. Considering he repeatedly showed that he had no interest in her beyond what one might call a professional one, he sure occupied a lot of her thoughts.

Kagome sighed a second time, and mid sigh she became fully physical. It turned out she needn't have worried about the cold, not yet anyway, because she came to in an incredibly small room, largely occupied by stacks of large sacks along the walls and a heap of fur right under a very small, round window at the far end of the room. The next thing she noted was the swaying, which, she immediately decided, she better get used to while sitting down on the stool that stood at the centre.

Was this where her counterpart slept?. When she discovered a faded pillow in the furs she was sure at least _someone_ was. She looked around for some hint on the inhabitant but spotted nothing at first. When she considered it safe to stand up again though, she found a chest in the right hand corner, half hidden behind the sacks that seemed to contain rice, if she didn't mistake the smell. The chest was tied to the floor with a string, and opened with one of the keys on the key ring hanging on a nail in the wall. Inside were two books, a smaller, carved box and clothes that looked to be her counterpart's size. She was fully convinced these were indeed a woman's possessions when, underneath all that, she found a pair of worn looking silk stockings and an equally old gray silk corsage. Unless of course one of the pirates was prone to crossdressing. But even then, Kagome remembered, they might still belong to the cook's wife.

Since she surely wouldn't find out about anything if she didn't leave this room, she closed the chest again and opened the door. Or rather tried, then realized it was locked, and managed to unlock it with another of the keys.

The door led out into a low and narrow corridor lined with other doors on both sides. She made her way along and realized that it went in a semi circle around several larger rooms in the middle, one of which was the galley, she guessed by the smell of things burning, fish and cooked rice. Several stairs finally allowed Kagome to step out onto the deck, where she was greeted with the expected cold. And jeez, but it was freezing! She only spared a fraction of a glance at the men going about their maritime business all around before she hastened back down, and into the room she came to in, determined to put on every last piece of clothing she would find, regardless of whom it really belonged to.

A few sizes larger she stepped out onto the deck again and right into general yelling and running about. Several people had clustered at one side of the railing and were pointing agitatedly at something beyond. Kagome timidly inched closer. Miroku's words still rung in her head as she looked from one tall, surprisingly scantly clad, wild looking man to the other. _"Wolf youkai generally aren't above eating humans..."_

She tried to sneak a look around the bulk of them but all she saw was dark gray water with whips of foam. Then the turmoil rose as a rope with a large ring attached was handed though and thrown at something just outside Kagome's sight. Even more yelling ensued, when several people agreed that whoever had thrown the rope, was a stupid fuck and never did anything right, to which someone, probably the accused, responded that they all were even stupider fucks who didn't have the balls to do anything without orders from above, which set loose a furious banter that ended abruptly when another person pointed out, yelling, that someone else had gripped the rope and why were none of them idiots pulling already.

Kagome hurried aside as the mob cleared to make space for the wet mass of shades of gray that one of the pirates, one with excessive face markings, or tattoos, that vaguely reminded Kagome of that eighties horror film she'd seen some time ago, heaved over the railing.

But, her fascination with the eccentric style of the pirates, that included these tattoos and spiky hair, fur, rather random pieces of armor, scars of all kinds and... tails, only lasted until she realized that the blob now lying in the center of the youkai's' attention, was firstly human..oid, and secondly looked a lot like... "Inuyasha!"

Her yell was out before she'd considered the consequences, and some of the men turned towards her.

"What was that, human? Do you know this mutt?" one of them, who looked menacing in a rusty breast plate that barely seemed to be fit to contain his bulging muscles, asked her brusquely. Kagome was horrified, and struggled for a response.

"I've never seen that woman before, get a grip," suddenly explained a rough voice. Kagome peered past the youkai who'd addressed her to find Inuyasha, if he were Inuyasha, now standing and nonchalantly fumbling with the mass of hair insistently sticking to his face.

The bulgy youkai, who seemed to be something like a spokesman for the rest, or felt in charge because he was the strongest, whipped around and started a futile attempt at towering over the newcomer. But the supposedly intimidated didn't even flinch.

"And just who are you, to come up here like the pathetic filth you are and behave like the captain himself?" the youkai growled.

"Who wants to know?" the other guy, who Kagome was convinced was Inuyasha's counterpart, now that he'd overwhelmed his hair to reveal a cocky expression and triangular dog ears, growled back.

Several gasps sounded from the rows of pirates that had been silent with anticipation. And, Kagome was inclined to agree. That youkai did not look like he liked to be messed with. Inuyasha did not look very capable of taking him on, even if he weren't still very blue around the lips and swaying a bit, because the other man was visibly a lot stronger. But, it was too late.

"I'll smash that cocky expression off your face, hanyou, and then I'll throw you back into the sea. We'll see how big a mouth you've got then."

The youkai tensed, shifting feet into what Kagome guessed was a fighting stance.

Inuyasha grinned, resting his hands on his hips. "Come on then. Try."

Kagome wanted to strangle him. That stupid, cocky idiot! She was about to intervene when another voice sounded from somewhere behind.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Horoto."

Heads whipped around, towards a man with a high black ponytail, a fuzzy headband and a breastplate that looked shinier than the others'. He stood at the railing of the higher part at the rear of the ship below which Kagome's supposed room lay and was smirking down at them.

"What?" the huge youkai groused, "Why the fuck not, Kouga-sama?"

The addressee's smirk widened as he leaped over the railing easily and right into the circle of pirates. So this was the keen first mate Miroku had made them aware of. He didn't look too bad, Kagome thought.

"Because," he explained calmly, with a note of amusement, resting a hand on Inuyasha's shoulder, "if I'm not mistaken, our friend here is none other than the infamous Han-hu, terror of the eastern seas."

Gasping abounded. Kagome listened intently as the youkai called Kouga continued. "Or ex terror. As far as I'm informed he was persecuted rather severely in his quadrant and obviously he was overtaken at last, because why else would he grace us with his presence here?"

Irritation surged through Kouga's face when Inuyasha beat away his hand. But, he didn't comment, just asked "Well, am I right?"

"Who wants to know?" Inuyasha asked again, clearly out of spite, since he must have guessed, just like Kagome, who Kouga was.

Irritation flared into anger on Kouga's face, but the huge youkai from before, Horuto, or something, cut in.

"Kouga-sama, even if he is who you suspect he is, you can't let him talk like that."

Within seconds, the outraged youkai was lying on the ground, groaning, holding his smitten face.

"What I can, and can't do, Horoto, is none of your business," the Kouga guy explained, deadly calm, all the while never taking his eyes off Inuyasha, who was glowering back fiercely.

"Answer now, hanyou! Are you the pirate known as Han-hu?"

"What if I am?" Inuyasha said defensively.

"In that case," Kouga explained in a forced matter of fact tone, "I'll kindly offer you a post in my crew. After you've passed a little test, of course."

Inuyasha's eyes suddenly locked with Kagome's, who'd followed the exchange with a rising feeling of dread. He drew up an eyebrow, questioningly. Kagome looked back dimly until she got it. Then she nodded hesitatingly. But, of course, he'd have to join the crew of they wanted to succeed in getting their hand on the shard; what was he asking her for? She still nodded.

"Well, yeah, I'm that guy. Now what?"

Animated chatter broke out amongst the pirates but was ended by a loud bellow from Kouga,

"Silence!" and turning back to Inuyasha he elaborated, "Now, as for your test..." he tapped his chin with a finger. Then he turned towards the rear and yelled, "Seotsu! Come up here!"

Gasping abounded again, and Kagome was, despite the worrying circumstances, beginning to suspect that this mob of pirates was not one of the brightest. There was only so much gasping you could do before you came across as a little dimwitted.

Then, from a hatch by the mast, a giant emerged. Kagome gasped, right into the anticipating silence that had befallen the crew when the huge youkai, who wasn't wearing any armor, probably because none fit, and was covered in shaggy furs instead, the same mud brown color as his spiky hair, slowly drew close. He had face markings consisting of two large black rhomboids around his eyes, and they stretched as he drew up his eyebrows and asked in an unfittingly clear voice, "Aye, Kouga-sama?"

"This man here," Kouga explained, "claims to be the infamous Han-hu, terror of the eastern seas. We agree that he should prove his words."

"I understand," the large youkai answered, already sizing Inuyasha up. "A pleasure."

The sized up glanced back at the man that was easily more than a head taller than he was, and smirked.

"That's your test? I defeat this pussy and I'm in? A pleasure indeed."

No. No. No. No. Why did Inuyasha have to be so damn obstinate and difficult every time a situation required diplomacy? Why? Even if there was no way around fighting, what use was there in making enemies with the rest of the crew by calling a guy who was probably the strongest of them names? But, what was a girl to do to save the situation, when she was surrounded by fierce looking wolf youkai? Who were "_Not above eating humans."_

Not that there would have been time to do so anyway. Before another word was spoken, Inuyasha leaped up, knocking the huge man through several people and into the mast with a massive kick.

Everyone sped away to make room for the fight, and Kagome was swept along, right up onto the cabin house at the back of the ship. The large youkai had shrugged the kick off easily and was now charging Inuyasha. But, he evaded the punch the youkai threw at him by nonchalantly jumping over him, against the mast, from where he propelled himself into the back of the other with both his feet. The giant crashed into the railing, which groaned with the strain, and fell onto his back. Inuyasha was onto him immediately, and in a blur of punches so fast Kagome failed to count them, hit several vulnerable places until the youkai's head crashed onto the deck as he lost consciousness.

Inuyasha stood, his face white, and stumbled over to the mast to lean against it.

"Will that do?" he asked, sounding more meek than conceited now.

Kouga leaped down to his fallen companion, prodding him with a foot. His crew members followed slowly, dragging Kagome along yet again, since she had no choice but to walk if she didn't want anyone to bump into her. Which she didn't want at all.

The wolf pirate first mate turned towards the still stark white Inuyasha. "I should think so. Your movements seemed a bit sluggish but I'll put that down to the freeze. You're in," he answered, and despite the criticism there was something in his voice which Kagome thought was awe, although that might have been an over-interpretation on her side, just because she was so impressed herself.

"Human!" Kouga suddenly bellowed and it took her a while to make the connection.

"Yes?" she answered, on a second thought adding "Kouga-sama?"

"Take our new deck boy below deck and get him warm. Attend to him. It may well be that we'll need him in top form soon enough."

"Yes, Kouga-sama," she answered obediently, and waited for Inuyasha to come staggering to her. Then she grabbed his arm to steady him and guided him down into her 'cabin'.

She waited outside while he took off his wet and salty clothes and when he said to come in he was lying under the window with the several furs and pieces of cloth that made up the bed.

"Those fucking motherfuckers," he groaned, eyes closed.

"Who? The pirates?" Kagome asked absently, sitting down on the stool. And not looking at the gray and blue heap of clothes on the ground besides her. And not thinking about where the clothes were definitely not to be found, right at the moment.

"No, dammit, that bitch and her slimy fuck! They fucking did it again!"

"You mean that you were thrown into the dimension while your counterpart was drifting in ice water?" Kagome concluded, guessing that the 'bitch and her slimy fuck' were Sango and Miroku.

"Damn right. I was fucking freezing to death out there. It feels like my- Whatever, they're dead, at least that Miroku is."

Kagome felt telling him to calm down would not aid the matter, just direct his anger at her, and so she let him rant. But during the time she half listened to his odd mutterings she recalled that this person in front of her had been the subject of her own severe irritation not so long ago. She'd just been so busy worrying about him that she'd almost forgotten. Which Inuyasha seemed to have realized, too.

"At least you're looking at me again. What was that about, anyway?" he blurted out just when she felt her eyebrows draw together in a frown.

"Hm?" she asked, then, recalling his question, decided to give him some of his own medicine. "Oh, nothing, nothing important. Now, are you hungry?"

"Don't give me that shit! You were bitchy as hell, and even you don't do that without a reason!" he supported himself on his elbows, glaring at her. "And yeah, I'm starving."

Kagome, standing, was tempted to tell him, but then thought better of it, since she might end up telling him about her odd interest in him that way. "I'll see what I can do for you in the kitchen. Stay here."

And she walked out of the room, just taking her hand off the handle inside when it was opened again to reveal a still very pale Inuyasha, but it was hard to tell whether the color came from the cold or from temper. He'd slung one of the pelts around his hips and looked very Neanderthal, which fit his yelling quite well.

"Don't you dare walk out on me; I want to know!"

"Why?" Kagome asked, thinking that maybe he was a bit too eager to know, just like she felt too curious about him. And she was right.

He sputtered, blushed, fumbled with the fur and then growled "Whatever."

Kagome opened the door to the kitchens and motioned for him to get back inside her cabin. "Then there's nothing to tell. Now go on back and get warm. I'll get you something to eat."

More sputtering, then grumbling, then Inuyasha grudgingly retreated into her cabin.

Inside the galley Kagome met the other two humans aboard, the cook and his wife. Neither was very talkative, just stopped their vegetable chopping when she told them about the hungry newcomer and presented her with a bowl of pickles and fish, and a large rice ball. Kagome thanked them, at which they looked at her a bit perplexedly, and carried the food back to her cabin.

Inuyasha was, thankfully, fully covered again and glowered at her, his nose barely sticking out from under the furs. Kagome placed the tray on the stool and sat down on the ground. Inuyasha immediately dug into the food with fervor, mumbling what sounded like a gruff, "Thanks," between bites.

When he was done eating he sank back into the bed, sighing contently and turning his rice adorned face towards her.

"So have you found out anything useful yet? Like where the captain's cabin is?" he demanded, and Kagome, sternly ignoring the urge to go tut-tut, and brush the rice off his face, admitted "No, I'd just reached the deck when they spotted you, and after that there was no time. But-" she hesitated, her wariness concerning the pirates not yet forgotten, "I guess I could go now, and look around a bit, while you're warming up here."

"I'll go with you, I'm warm enough." Inuyasha explained, pushing himself up so that the furs slowly glided off. He glanced down at himself, halting just in time. "But I guess I'll need clothes. D'you have any spare?"

After several embarrassing minutes during which Inuyasha declared her an utter wimp for wearing all the clothing her counterpart possessed and refusing to part with any of it, Kagome went back to the kitchen to ask the cook and his wife for spare clothing. They gave her the same puzzled look, then told her, implying that she ought to know, that there were plenty spare clothes in the storage room under the mess room under the main deck. Kagome swished off, cursing herself for being so undiplomatic again, and walked out to look for the way down to the storage room. There was a hatch close to the mast, held open by a stick, and Kagome climbed right in. Although some youkai were about everywhere, thankfully, none of them seemed to pay any attention to her, and Kagome got past the rows of hammocks, down another ladder into the storage rooms unhindered. There were indeed lots of clothes in several chests but most of them did not look fit for daily work on a ship. They were rich silk and brocade garments, probably booty from the pirates' raids. At last, Kagome found a box of plain trousers and shirts, some with very unsettling faded red brown spots or tears. She chose a pair that looked the right size and, she shuddered, not like it had been stolen off a mutilated corpse, and made her way up again, casting glances at the crew as she went. Yet again, no one interfered, accusing her of theft or whatever.

Kagome hopped down the stairs to the cabin corridor to be intercepted by a fur clad Inuyasha, who furiously demanded what the fuck had taken her so long. She ushered him back into the cabin, telling him to calm down already, since nothing had happened, and handed him the clothes. He complained but she shut the door on him, and he opened it again in no time, fully dressed this time and still grumbling.

They set off for the deck, where suddenly they were the center of attention, or Inuyasha was. Kouga appeared behind them, giving Kagome quite a scare when he spoke up "Welcome aboard then, hanyou."

As if that had been a general cue, suddenly everyone who was not busy doing something important stormed in on them, bombarding Inuyasha with questions.

"What happened to your ship?"

"Who nailed you?"

"What about your crew?"

Inuyasha shot fierce glares at everyone and they backed off a bit hurriedly, but the questioning didn't cease. So, he looked at Kagome helplessly, but she shrugged. She had no idea what he could tell them either. "Make something up" she mouthed, tapping her temple with a finger, and he nodded slowly. Then he began telling quite a phantasmagoric tale.

"Yeah, well, my ship's gone, those fuckers shot it to toothpicks. I think they had magicians, or battle priests of some kind, who kept turning the wind to their advantage, it was a fucking nightmare, I can tell you. I don't think anyone but me survived, lots were torn apart by magic blasts, that kind of thing. And who it was, honestly, I've no idea. Not the government, I'm sure, except if they've a new branch that messes with battle magic."

But, to Kagome's perplexity, they seemed to buy it. Battle magicians? What the heck?

"Battle magic you say?" Kouga mused, "Well, that could mean trouble for us, too, especially if it _weren't_ those inept fools of the northern hemispheric government." He turned to a shipmate, one with a spiky mohawk. "Who's up in the crow's nest right now, Hakkaku?"

"I think that's Moko up there, Kouga-sama." supplied another.

"Yup," agreed the pirate called Hakkaku. "And Lo-hei on the Bloodcherry, Ginta on the Den and the newbie boy on the Windchild."

Kagome wondered about the funny names, right until Kouga told the Hakkaku guy to tell the Windchild to get a pro up there, right this instant, and every ship to shorten shifts so there would always an able and fully awake lookout. Then Kagome remembered that Miroku had told them the wolf youkai had a _fleet_ of ships. And, indeed, as she peered past the billowing sails she spotted a ship rather close ahead. The other two were probably somewhere behind them.

The small mob of men cleared slowly, each returning to whatever tasks had them occupied before, until only Kouga, Inuyasha and Kagome were left standing there.

"If what you say is true, hanyou," Kouga explained his measures to Inuyasha, "we may well be in danger of attack too. And since my father's not with us right now we're one ship and thirty men short so it's quite a streak of luck that you happened to drop by."

"Your father's not here?" Inuyasha blurted out, while Kagome suddenly realized that she was indeed not feeling a shard close by. But, with all the commotion earlier and the bickering with Inuyasha she just hadn't payed attention.

Kouga shook his head no. "Why?"

"Well... It seems a bit odd to join a crew without the captain knowing," Inuyasha said lamely.

Kouga sized him up irritatedly. "I'm captain as long as he's gone, so that'll be alright. He stayed behind at home because the new ship we captured, a southern galleon type, needs various adjustments. And he's still the most capable builder we have. We'll meet up with him soon, though, in about two weeks. And I think he will be well pleased with the catch I made. A strong man in the crew is worth his weight in diamonds."

"Whatever," Inuyasha commented, looking grim for some reason. "So, have you anything for me to do now?"

Kouga drew up an eyebrow at that and tapped his chin. "Not really, but we are on our way to a trade route up west, so there might be work later on. Rest till then, or whatever. There are spare hammocks for the mess somewhere, ask Taro, he should be down in the storage rooms by now."

"But you, human, don't you have cleaning to do?" he suddenly turned on Kagome; "You're just standing around here, that's certainly not what we're providing you with food and shelter for!"

Kagome jerked, fearful at being addressed by him so abruptly again, and hurried off with a bow, thinking that, revolting as it was, obedience was key here.

Inuyasha joined her in her cabin a little later, when she was busy spreading his still clammy clothes on the floor so they would dry. But there was just not enough room to fit the trousers completely, tiny as the space between the sacks was.

"So are you feeling the shard somewhere?" greeted Inuyasha.

Kagome got up from the floor to make room for him, superfluously, since he leaped onto the furs directly.

"No, I'm not feeling anything. The captain probably has the shard with him."

"Damn."

"Yup." Kagome sat down on the stool, exasperated.

"I don't get those two," Inuyasha growled.

"Who, now, Sango and Miroku?"

"Yeah, I mean, why would they send us into this dimension if the shard's not close by, and there's no way of getting close to it in the near future either? That's just stupid."

"That's true. I mean, I thought it was supposed to be really exhausting for Sango to keep our souls fused with our counterparts'. And they do seem to know everything about each dimension, so why do they do it?"

Inuyasha nodded, "And I don't think they just overlooked an important detail like that. So what's that crap all about?"

They looked at each other, puzzled, but they just had no idea.

"I guess we're in for a long stay this time," Kagome concluded, getting up. "So I'll go and see what my counterpart normally does, or else I might be kicked off the ship for all I know," she half joked, half voiced her fears. "Maybe you could go mingle, and find out something about the shard."

Inuyasha did not look too eager, but got up anyway.

"I'll see what I can do."

As they parted ways in the corridor and Kagome was about to walk into the kitchen he suddenly called out to her, scratching the back of his neck hesitatingly

"Huh?" Kagome inquired.

"Well, if there's really any repairing to do, you know, I can, like, help you."

Kagome smiled. "That's nice of you to offer. Thanks."

He smirked suddenly, "Well, we don't want your klutziness messing with your counterpart's life, do we?"

She glared. To think that she'd thought he was being nice for once. "Witty. Thanks anyway," and she burst into the kitchen.

OO

O

OO

Figuring that the cook and his wife would realize something was off about her sooner or later she went right ahead and told them she'd fallen and hit her head earlier that day, and was now a bit hazy on details of her past, starting with her daily routine. It was a very stupid lie, but she just couldn't come up with anything else that might explain her 'partial amnesia'. They gave her the confused look yet again, but nodded, and the wife asked concernedly if she was hurting very bad, and maybe needed to rest. Kagome declined, and instead asked them to tell her about her routine on the ship, struggling to memorize every detail. It turned out she got up before dawn, helped with breakfast , then attended to the captain's and the mates' cabins, then helped in the storage rooms, that were in constant need rearrangement, it seemed, or did whatever was necessary until late afternoon, when she helped with preparations for supper. Kagome was quite surprised. From what Miroku had implied she'd somehow expected her counterpart to be little better off than a slave in the classical sense of the word, but this sounded manageable. Not that she was any less of a slave anyway, as Kouga had said, she was getting food and shelter, no pay.

She thanked the cook and his wife and was about to leave for the storage rooms to see if she was needed there, then remembered about the question of the sleeping arrangements. And yes, she did indeed sleep in the rice storage room, as that had been the only space left when she'd joined the crew.

On her way through the mess she stumbled, yet again, right into havoc of some kind. She heard shouting even from the deck and hurried down fearing those were the typical yells of support that accompanied a fight. But what she found was Inuyasha, lying amidst a circle of about fifteen pirates, locked with one of them in a fierce match of... arm wrestling. Kagome stood and stared as he pressed forearm after forearm of the eager contestants onto the wooden floor.

Well, if this was what he considered mingling... she might as well play her part, too, she decided, and stepped past the agitated young men, down into the storage rooms.

The pirate there was lounging on a heap of foreign looking furs and dozing. Kagome watched him cluelessly for a while. Somehow, life in this pirate ship seemed to be a lot more relaxed than she had anticipated. Now, she was no expert, but she'd imagined everyone would be busy in some way all of the time, even when they were not raiding, doing whatever, climbing around the rigging, yelling commands unintelligible to outsiders, tending to ripped sails, sharpening their weapons, that kind of seafaring thing. But everyone seemed to be quite enjoying themselves; right then it wouldn't have surprised her anymore to hear them sing 'Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum, sitting on a dead man's chest.'

When the sleeping youkai rolled onto his back on the furs and started snoring, Kagome was convinced she was not needed there. Up in the mess, the match was still going on, but Inuyasha seemed to be taking a rest, talking to one of the men who was gesturing elaborately. Kagome refrained from intruding, since he seemed to be making some kind of effort, although, as she took a closer look, somehow those gestures looked like they were talking about... well, certainly not hourglasses.

Kagome stomped past, feeling another surge of Inuyasha bound annoyance coming on. There she was, earnestly trying to find out about, well not exactly find out about the shard, but at least she was making an effort to maintain her counterpart's facade, whereas he was obviously enjoying himself grandly.

Although, she admitted silently, he was, in his way, probably doing the same. It was just her misfortune that the role he had to play included having all sorts of fun, and hers, work.

But still, what a jerk.

No matter whom she asked, and she did ask, as she was gradually loosing a bit of her timidity of the wolf pirates, no one seemed to have any task for her to fulfill, none, at least, that took her longer than a few minutes. So when, after that wild goose chase through the innards of the ship she stepped though a door and miraculously found herself in the corridor with the galley and her own chamber, she decided she'd just go rifling that chest to maybe find out more about her counterpart.

One of the books was full of poems, some written in signs she could not read, some in ancient Japanese, which she had some conception of. She turned it so the light that shone through the small scuttle illuminated the lines. What she understood was about trees, flowers, fruit and leaves blowing in the wind, that kind of thing, most of it metaphors for love, probably. The other book was, as far as she could see, a book about the construction of ships, with lots of slightly faded ink drawings and annotations scribbled almost everywhere possible. She thumbed through it a bit, half hoping it would suddenly enlighten her about the nature of ship-craft, but got bored soon enough. So she pulled the little box out, searching on her ring of keys for one that might fit the tiny, engraved lock. But, to no avail, none was small enough. Kagome looked around the room.

"Now, if I were a smallish key, where would I hide?" she murmured, but honestly, this cabin, which was a booth rather, really had no surfaces to place anything upon except for the miniature board on the wall over of her makeshift bed, which was designed to hold a little oil lamp, nothing more. She found the key at last when she pulled her collar musingly, and her hands met a string of leather, with a pendant that felt almost like... a key, indeed.

Inside the box was a dark green flask of milky glass, corked but with a broken seal of wax, perfume, by the smell of it; a necklace that actually might be worth something, an elaborate flower of silver with a core of a rotund red stone hanging on a feeble silver chain; and another flask, filled with dark liquid which was probably ink, since there was a small quill laying besides it. All this lay on a thick packet of paper, bound with a string.

Ignoring the gnawing feeling that she was being nosy to the point of trespassing personal boundaries, Kagome untied it.

The uppermost were letters, all written by someone named Joi-han, to, and this quite surprised her, someone else, called, among other things, 'Ray of light in the endless dark that is my heart'; 'flower of misty petals'; 'My own true love'; 'voluptuous tigress whose willing prey is hers for the slaying'; 'luminous temptress, possessor of my every breath' and the likes. Kagome felt a massive blush coming on, as she skimmed over the pages. These letters were... steamy, written by a man who was not only extremely fond of this woman but also thought that the best way of expressing this was by never repeating an endearment and retelling in detail every dream, every fantasy he had about her. And some of them, well... there was much talk about moist flowers, cradling this and that against creamy thighs or swelling mounds, losing oneself in rapture/an onslaught of passion/a fire, and so on.

Kagome laid the letters aside. Now either this counterpart of hers had quite a hot affair going on, or... but then she recalled that amidst all the flowery endearments the actual name of the woman addressed had been mentioned once or twice, and it wasn't Su-hine, her counterpart's name. So how had she obtained these rather intimate letters? And why?

Confused, Kagome unfolded another paper. It was a poem, artfully drawn and looking decidedly newer than the letters. It was a haiku, about foam on the sea drifting apart in a whip of current, and somehow the theme as well as the handwriting, which looked similar to the scribbles in the ship building book, had Kagome guess that it was her counterpart's own creation.

There where quite a lot of poems, all written in that deft hand, mostly haiku but longer pieces too, even what looked like a Shakespearean sonnet, if she wasn't mistaken. Kagome was mesmerized. And impressed. Her counterpart seemed to be a woman of some culture, some of the poems were truly beautiful. And sad they were, too, speaking of undefined yearning, loss and general melancholy.

It would be rather hard to play this role, Kagome thought. When it came to poetry, she was about as good as your average teenager, which was no good at all. Not that she hadn't tried, but she'd given up after about two lines, when she failed to find another that fit the rhythm of the first.

Now she rather regretted it, maybe, if she had put a bit more effort to it, she might now be able to produce prettiness like that.

She lay down on the bed rereading some of the poems, when suddenly a feeling of dread stroked the very boundaries of her awareness. Confused, she concentrated on that notion, but it did not become any clearer. Just more intense. She was beginning to sweat with that undefined fear as she scrambled out of her bed and hurried to look for Inuyasha, figuring that something was awfully amiss. Up, outside, Kagome was nearly run over by several youkai pirates who scurried and leaped past out of every turret and door, carrying weapons, mainly spears, and grapnel-like things. She pressed against the wall of the cabin house, trying to spot Inuyasha in all of this, all the while growing more and more sure that something truly wicked was bound their way.

Suddenly someone dropped down besides her, giving her a painful scare. But, it was only Inuyasha.

"Oi, woman, you shouldn't hang around here anymore, they've spotted a trade fleet and are planning a raid," he advised, making shooing motions with his hands, "Go on below deck already!"

"Gladly, Inuyasha, but listen-" She was interrupted by a yell from somewhere high above, which was echoed by all of the crew. Then everyone clustered at the left hand railing, to look at their booty that was probably now in proper sight. Inuyasha half turned to go join them, but Kagome, almost choking on the impending doom, grabbed his sleeve.

"Wait Inuyasha! Something's wrong!"

That got her his attention back. "What?"

"I can't really tell, but I've this feeling, it's like when I feel the shards, and not quite. Like there's some thing very distorted, perverted, something evil coming this way." She pointed in the very direction everyone was staring right then.

"Something evil?" Inuyasha echoed doubtfully, "But what's that supposed to be? Youkai? Then you'd be having this feeling all of the time here."

"It's like youkai, but worse... False, somehow, like, I, gee Inuyasha, just believe me! Be careful!"

He looked at her, probably trying to guess whether she was just messing with him. Kagome met his glare with earnest certainty. She knew she was right, the goose bumps rising on her skin from fear were proof enough!

At last, Inuyasha nodded, looking quite worried now. "Alright. I'll watch out for anything odd. But you will stay below deck, now more than ever, got that?" he urged.

"Yes." Kagome nodded. "Warn the others!" she ordered as she pulled open the door besides her. Inuyasha drew one eyebrow up, but shrugged in agreement.

As Kagome hurried into the kitchens to warn the cook and his wife about the raid and her fears she wondered about that last demand of hers. Because one might think that she wouldn't give much of a damn if the pirates ran unknowing into whatever horror the ships they were about to raid held. But seeing them so cheerful today, and realizing that they were all fairly young, hardly out of their teens, and a bit dim on top of that, Kagome felt that they deserved at least something like a fair chance, even if they were busy doing something criminal.

The cook and his wife were busy stacking all of their equipment away, and were glad for her helping hands. They listened with concern when she told them about her feeling that something truly wicked was coming with the trade ships and whispered something to each other when she was finished.

"What was that?" Kagome inquired.

"Gokuraku-chou," the wife of the cook repeated. "We heard talk of this in the last harbor we put into.. No one seems to know for sure what they are, but they accompany trade ships for a fee."

"What are they, then?" Kagome asked urgently.

Both of them shrugged helplessly. "No one knows, they are youkai, and yet they're not. Because no youkai would ever help humans on their own account. Never," the cook explained.

"This is bad." Kagome listened intently for sounds from above. But there was only the odd command and trampling of feet to be heard. Then, suddenly, a sound like thunder rang and there was silence.

"It's started." The cook explained quietly, sitting down on the bench besides the oven. "Now we wait."

But Kagome could not share their concerned calm. The feeling of dread and horror had yet to cease nauseating her, in fact, it was still getting worse. She paced up and down in the small galley, starting every time another cannon was fired. So, she stumbled when suddenly there was a crash that shook the ship hard. Fierce screams came from above as she clambered to her feet. Now the raid was probably officially started. She thought she faintly heard the cling and clang of metal hitting metal, and the odd shriek of pain that accompanied fighting.

Kagome could not rest. She stood listening for a second, then she hurried out of the kitchens. And just as she opened the door to the deck to catch a glimpse there was a yell sounding over the noise of the fight, and Kagome thought she recognized the voice of Inuyasha's counterpart.

"Look up you idiots! Something's coming!"

Kagome hopped out of the door, looking up in the now darkening skies. And indeed there were black dots spilling out of the low hanging clouds, growing into about two dozens of roundish blobs with wings at an alarming speed. And as they drew near, Kagome was convinced that it was them who were the cause of her bad feeling. They, were, as far as Kagome could see, like a perverse fusion of two creatures at once, of a blue, round feathered body of a bird that was slit in half by a huge mouth with pointed teeth and the blue torso and head of something that looked remotely human atop. She shuddered and pressed into the shadow of the cabin house. The creatures emitted excruciating shrieks as they attacked the wolf youkai spread over all three of the ships that were cornered by the four others around them, the pirates' fleet.

Then a battle broke loose that had Kagome close her eyes half way through it. Feathers sprayed with blood strewing everywhere, limbs and things undefined splattering the decks; it was impossible to tell who might win the upper hand there, the wolf pirates who had the advantage of numbers, or the bird-things, who could fly and were as large as elephants. Kagome could not look away for long though, and when she cast a careful glance at the scene it seemed like the tables had turned in the pirates favor. This obviously had a lot to do with the lightning quick blurs, one of white, one of black, who Kagome guessed were Inuyasha and Kouga, respectively, and who caused massive explosions of blue feathers and blood wherever they appeared. The birds must have realized this too, because all of a sudden, they leaped into the air, well out of the reach of spears thrown and bolts fired, and hovered over the ships. The wolf youkai jubilated, some of them disappearing under deck to loot the conquered ships. But, then the youkai birds started another attack, not at the youkai on the trade ships. They separated and dove at the four pirate ships, which had been left with only a few men to take care of them. Immediately chaos broke out on the trade ships, when everyone tried to get back to their ships at once, but Kagome only half paid attention, because several of the birds, who still had an aura of perverse wrongness that was nearly choking her, came directly at her. They hadn't spotted her yet, but she was really rather plain to see. And paralyzed with fear, too.

A squeal must have escaped her when the ship shook with the impact of several tons of youkai bird, because the one closest to her swished around and caught her with its several eyes. Kagome pressed back against the wall behind her, madly willing it to let her melt through it. Which was stupid of course, but with her mind rattling from the onslaught of terror the thing gave her she was not really capable of anything else. And as it slowly, smugly, because it knew well she could not escape, drew nearer, Kagome saw why the presence of these youkai was so revolting to her. When she looked in its eyes she saw nothing of the humanity she saw in the wolf pirates, or even the slightly dull, but determined glare of a predator she thought she'd seen in every eye of that spider youkai back in that other dimension. What she saw was flickering, no, flaming insanity.

Expressions changed on the being's vaguely human face so fast that for a few seconds Kagome thought it wasn't even solid. And now it was so close, she thought she saw where the feeling she had really came from; around the human neck of the thing a collar was slung, with a stone embedded into it, glowing blackly, and this collar emitted the false aura that distorted the feel of youkai energy Kagome recognized from the wolf pirates as well as the spider youkai and, now that she thought about it, probably even Inuyasha, although his, of course, felt a bit different.

Obviously, this necklace, whatever it was, not only distorted the energy of the youkai but also its mind. Its eyes seemed unable to settle on Kagome, even as it was advancing. They kept swaying to one side and another, or turned towards each other closer than Kagome considered was healthy. And although she was trembling with fear she felt pity for the creature. Because it was clear that it was suffering under the powerful magic of the collar.

On the other hand, it was also still intent on killing her, at least with the majority of its confused personality and now leaping at her, its huge jaws open wide, teeth monstrous and yellowish. Kagome forgot about compassion and closed her eyes. Then she screamed.

When she opened her eyes, she was, surprisingly, still alive. And, covered in blood and bits offlesh. Then she was shoved against the wall, hard.

"What do you fucking think you are doing up here?" Inuyasha yelled at her.

Kagome peered past him, at the corpse of the former youkai that now had a frizzled hole through its... lower body, for lack of a better word.

"What just happened?" she asked, a bit dazed.

Inuyasha stepped back a bit and glowered at her, arms crossed in front of his chest.

"You did the freaky energy blast thing again, just when I was coming. You barely missed me, but your friend here was not as lucky, as you – that's not the fucking question here, dammit! Why were you outside? I _told_ you to stay inside!"

Now that Kagome was getting a grip on herself again she saw that he was looking very exhausted, and was covered in so much blood it was impossible to tell whether he was hurt himself in the dim sunset light.

"Are you all right?" she asked, reaching out to touch a gash in his clothing. He swatted her hand away.

"Just go back inside and fucking _stay_ there this time!" he growled, grabbing her arm, ripping open the door and shoving her inside. The door slammed shut when she hit the deck. Kagome scrambled to her feet, caught somewhere between seething and worrying, and stumbled back into the galley where the cook and his wife still sat on their bench, dropped to the floor there and listened anxiously while overhead the battle continued.

OO

O

OO

The pirates won, barely, but they got away, because the bird youkai finally saw that they wouldn't last, and the remaining ten of them flew off. At least that was what Inuyasha told Kagome when he came stumbling into the kitchen some time later. Then he turned to the cook's wife, asking

"Can you sew? They're gonna need some needles out there. And bandages."

To which the woman nodded and hurried to fetch a large box from one cabinet. Kagome followed her when she and her husband ran out, but Inuyasha held her back.

"No. Best stay here, some of them... you don't wanna see that."

"Inuyasha," Kagome looked at him, the cuts and tears all over his body that were visible now in the shine of the oil lamps, since he'd somehow managed to shed his shirt, "can't be looking worse than you, eh?" she joked, but shook her head. "Seriously, Inuyasha, I know a few things about first aid, and I can sew too. Besides, I guess I already have seen worse, remember the spider youkai?"

He sighed, obviously not in the mood to argue, as strange as that sounded, and released her arm.

"Knock yourself out. But don't tell me I didn't warn you, when you're sick afterwards."

Which was not that bad a prognosis, not at all. When Kagome was finally sure that they had patched up every last one of the pirates, she felt a huge wave of nausea coming on. With some of the wounds she'd seen it was a miracle their victims were still breathing, let alone conscious and assuring her that this was nothing.

But what was nearly as unsettling as the blood all around was the mood the crew was in. They had, in the heat of the battle, somehow still managed to empty each of the ships of its load, and the ships had transported what looked like the wardrobes of several princesses: exhuberant robes; jewelery;more robes; and even a few small pieces of furniture, like little tables, everything made out of the most precious materials there were, if she could take everyone's word for it. Thus the mood was, even despite the loss of, all in all, five men, one off this very ship, rather cheerful. Calls were for a feast, and before some of the more sombre looking guys, who seemed to have been close friends with the deceased, could protest, barrels were rolled onto the deck from somewhere, and the cook was advised to prepare some of the meat they stored for occasions like this.

Kagome observed all this while she was bandaging Inuyasha, who up until then had somehow managed to evade treatment, and so she voiced her distaste with the willingness to forget their dead comrades the youkai displayed. After he'd elaborately explained how she was insane and suicidal and should not be allowed outside her cabin for the rest of their mission if she insisted on endangering herself like that, of course.

At her comment, he peered down at her winding a bandage around his torso.

"Now I don't really know these guys but from what I saw so far I'd say that's kind of their way to honor them. I mean, they died for one hell of a booty, so it'd be a shame not to celebrate it, something like that."

Kagome considered this. "It still seems... inconsiderate of them."

He frowned. "Well, sorry to break this to you, but these guys are pirates. Gangsters, if you want. Ruthless criminals. Each of them knows the risk they're taking when they're going on a raid, and its not like they never take lives themselves."

Which was why, for all the inexplicable sympathy Kagome felt for this bunch of rogues, quite a lot of wariness and even fear remained.

Meanwhile the feast had fully started. Inuyasha had heard they'd anchored somewhere rather shallow, although there was no land to be seen, and were now producing cups from god knew where to fill them with the darkish looking liquid from the barrels. But before high spirits could really ensue Kouga dropped down amidst them.

"Now, folks, I don't mind a little celebration, but must I remind you that some of these bird freaks got away? So don't overdo it, and who's gonna be on the look-out? We're gonna need one man for each mast."

A few men rose, among them those that had seemed to be against the party anyway, and after a short argument two leaped up into the dark above. At Kouga's nod the cups were filled once more, and soon enough some of the pirates came over to Inuyasha and her, all but dragging him away for some 'game' as they called it. Kagome only stayed long enough to see that it involved a song, a deck of cards, and a keg of whatever the stuff in the barrels was. Then she was quite fed up with watching Inuyasha swig away cupfuls too fast for the human eye to see, under the cheer and singsong of his new friends.

The kitchens were blissfully silent in comparison, but she could only stay so long before the cook and his wife carefully suggested that she go rest herself since she kept dropping things, especially when someone yelled overhead. She protested but that was just a reflex. She was pretty knackered, it was true, and her hands were shaking, too. So, she went to her cabin, not bothering with the oil light, just took off her bloodied outer layer of clothing and flopped onto the heap of furs that was her bed. But no matter how comfortable she got, sleep refused to come, and that was only partly to do with the noise ringing through the wooden ceiling.

Because suddenly she realized that this was the first quiet moment, real quiet moment all to herself, she had since, oh, since she'd been blind and a princess, which was... about four days ago? What with the constant change of settings, it was kind of hard to keep track of the days. Now that she thought about it, this whole thing was going on for almost two weeks now.

With all those dubious explanations it was hard to be sure, but if time passed just as fast in her home dimension that meant she'd been dead there just as long. Kagome curled in on herself. Was everyone still crying? She, her body, was certainly cremated by now; what had her burial been like? How did Souta do? Was Mama still singing while she cooked, or was she hardly speaking at all, like she had the weeks after Pops had died? And, Jii-chan, how had he taken it? His heart hadn't exactly been in the best of conditions for a while, maybe the shock had been too much? Buyo, now, no need to worry about him. Kagome chuckled wetly. He'd hardly ever cared about anything as long as food was plentiful. She choked on her mirth and broke into huge sobs. She wanted home! Now!

This whole mission was so horrible; people kept dying because of them, some of them _children_ for heavens sake! Inuyasha got hurt on a daily basis, worse every time, impossible as that seemed! And those two up there, or where ever else they were, they kept talking, explaining, but it was all just words, nothing ever made sense anymore as soon as they entered a new dimension. And then, for all she wanted home, was it right to sacrifice all these people for it? Granted, if they really were saving the whole universe, maybe it was, but how was she supposed to be sure when Sango and Miroku kept giving this inconsistent picture?

Kagome only realized that she was almost screaming with sadness and madness when a rough hand brushed her face and another shook her shoulder. She started, but the hand kept her down.

"Shhh," someone soothed. Kagome peered through the film of tears into the almost darkness, right into two bright pools of shimmering glow, one bluish, one silvery.

"Inuyasha?"

The hands retreated. "Yeah, dammit! What's going on here? Are you hurt or something?"

Kagome sat up, wiping her eyes that were still overflowing. Now that she could see a bit clearer, yes, that was indeed Inuyasha sitting down on the stool besides her bed, swaying gently as she watched.

"No, I'm fine," she answered his question.

"Right. So you're crying just for the hell of it, or what?" he slurred sarcastically, at which point Kagome noticed the silhouette of a large mug resting on what must have been his knee.

"Are you drunk?"

He fell off the stool.

"Fuck, don't you have any light in here?" he cursed, among other things, rubbing his head that had hit the door behind him with a loud crack. Kagome fumbled for the matchstick like things that lay on the tray the lamp stood in, managing to light it at last. In its slowly flaring shine, Kagome saw that she needn't have asked. Inuyasha was still cursing as he scrambled unsteadily to his feet and sat on the stool again, scooting back so he could lean his back against the door. Then he grabbed his mug again, that somehow hadn't spilled a drop through all of this. He was drunk alright, if the swaying wasn't proof enough, then his dazedly unfocused eyes were.

He still managed to glare at her, or in her general direction at least.

"So what was this crap about? Fuck, I heard you all the way up there, it sounded like... " he looked away from her suddenly, "like a banshee or something. Crazy woman."

"It was all a bit too much during the last days, I guess," Kagome said lamely, her neutral tone probably spoiled by her sniffling.

"Well, I told you y'better not go up there n'help but no, my judgment can't be trusted, no way," he groused, then cocked his head looking at her again. "That's not all there's to it, though, am I right?"

Kagome opened her mouth to answer but he cut in.

"I told you we'd make it. Don't worry, you'll get it all back, your life 'n crap," he explained, leaning in. "It all worked out so far, dinnit? And there's only, what, seven dimensions left, if we c'nsider this one here done, so chill, woman."

Kagome couldn't help but smile a little. It was almost... endearing to hear someone as pessimistic as Inuyasha deliver such a positive assertion of their situation. Even if it was just the alcohol speaking. She stopped crying, more or less, and they sat a while in silence as she regained her grip and he scrutinized her.

Suddenly Inuyasha stood. "Come on, I'll show you something, that'll take your mind right off... whatever, really."

And before Kagome had any chance to object he grabbed her from her furs and slung her over his shoulder. She squeaked and struggled for him to let her down, because he wasn't exactly coming across as steady, but he was already jogging along the corridor, occasionally _almost_ bumping into one wall or the other. Kagome gave up when they emerged, stumbling, into the bitingly cold night air and he leaped right onto the house at the rear of the ship. From there it was only another jump until he settled her down again, right into... a little rowing boat fastened to the very back of the ship?

"What's this?" she asked perplexedly, as Inuyasha dropped down between the benches.

"The lifeboat, somethin' like that," he explained offhandedly, pulling her arm so she sat down besides him, on the floor of the boat. He pointed up. "Now look at that. Pretty, huh?"

He was right.

"But it was so gray all day..." Kagome wondered. Now all that was left of the formerly thick carpet of clouds were a few whips, adding to the serene allure the sickle thin moon cast over the night sky. Stars cluttered the black like little diamonds and there were more of them than Kagome had ever seen. She sighed in awe and watched as her breath rose in a white cloud and evaporated, clearing the view of the beautiful sky again.

"Must've been years since I last saw a sky like that," Inuyasha said quietly after they'd spent awhile contemplating the moon.

"Yes, what with all that light smog in the cities, I don't think I've ever seen something like that," Kagome clattered, since she was getting a bit cold.

"Ah, you cold? Wait, I was gonna refill anyway, I'll get a blanket." And off he hopped, cursing faintly when he hit something on the way across the steering stand.

Kagome looked up again, shivering, and wondered. Now what kind of an Inuyasha was this supposed to be? Was he really being... nice just then? Maybe it was because he was drunk, and his defense mechanisms had been watered down so much he didn't have to pretend it was mortally dangerous to socialize. Especially with someone you were going to spend a whole lot of time with in the near future anyway. And had already spend almost two weeks with, too.

Well, Kagome qualified mentally when he suddenly dropped down besides her again, shaking the boat dangerously, even if he was being nice, just like that, no second thoughts, if he kept going like that he certainly wouldn't recall any of it tomorrow. He'd brought a whole bottle of something she didn't recognize in the dark. But he'd also brought the blanket, or a fur rather, into which Kagome eagerly snuggled when he handed it to her. At her offer to share on which she nearly choked when she realized just how that sounded, he explained he wasn't exactly cold. And, shaking the bottle, he had plenty other things to keep him warm. Just when he'd drained the first mug Kagome burst out.

"Why are you doing this, anyway?"

"What?"

"Drinking like that."

"Uhm... to celebrate?" he said lamely.

"What's there to celebrate, it's not like we're _really _a part of the crew or anything, or like you'll get a share. Or like the booty didn't come at a price."

"Well, I felt like it. What's it to you, anyway?" he snapped, suddenly not so chemically easy going anymore.

"It's just... well, its _poison_, isn't it? I just don't see why..."

"Keh, poison! Even the air we breathe today is poisonous. Alcohol is healthy compared t'that."

"Well, and losing control like that..." Kagome continued, "I didn't get the impression that's something you'd voluntarily submit yourself to."

Now he was glaring at her, looking almost normal again. Which was disgruntled, to say the least. "Now listen, tis nothin' like what you're thinking of. Booze, that's... that's controlled loss of control. I know how much I drink, so I know what'll happen."

"So what you told me about drinking till you passed out, that was on purpose? You planned that?" He couldn't be serious!

"What if I did?"

"That's just stupid! I mean, no matter what you say, it's poison. People die from it!"

"Yeah, cuz their stupid. It's never done me any harm, that's for sure." he bit back with little conviction.

"So you wouldn't mind, say, children drinking it? Or me for that matter?"

He shrugged, but uneasily.

"Then give me the mug. You said it helps you sleep? I've had trouble sleeping tonight."

"Wh-what?"

"You heard me all right." Kagome said sternly, gleefully watching him squirm. "If it's only gonna do me good, why shouldn't I try it?"

"I didn't say t'was only doin' good! I meant it did _me_ more good than bad."

"Oh? How are you any different from me, then?" Kagome snapped, exasperated that he refused to admit he was just wrong.

"Well, I'm-" he faltered and stopped, glaring. Then he suddenly thrust the mug to her. "Know what? Knock yourself out."

"Wh-what?"

"You heard me alright. Drink, if you wanna, none of my business whatcha doin."

So there Kagome sat, her scheme of provoking him into seeing the wrong of his ways unexpectedly turned on her. She laughed nervously, trying to catch a glimpse at Inuyasha's face in the dark, to hopefully find in his expression a hint that he was joking. But either it was too dark or his face really was that expressionless.

"Keh. Big words, but you're too chicken, I knew." Inuyasha settled comfortably back in the boat.

Inside Kagome a war broke loose, between her pride, which sneered 'Oh, so you're gonna let him think he won, huh? That you have no idea of what you're talking about?'; her reason, which kept yelling 'Poison! It's poison, you stupid girl, Remember Uncle Shun?'; and some unnamed other part, which mused 'Maybe, you know, maybe it _does_ calm you down. I mean, we're still on the brink of tears here, sleeping would be nice.'

"Though you're right. Booze ain't for little girlies, no way." Inuyasha then chuckled thickly.

Well, that certainly did it. She ripped the mug out of his hands, spilling quite a lot of it onto their hands. She'd take a teensy sip, just to show him, and then she'd go right back inside, leaving this drunk fool to drown as soon as he eventually fell out of the boat. To think that she'd thought he was being nice!

Kagome nearly coughed up the whole swallow again, but she suppressed it, pride, again. Gee, what did they make this stuff out of? Seaweed? It burned and tasted fishy.

Inuyasha grabbed the mug again, grumbling something she didn't quite catch.

You had to hand it to that awful stuff, though; the blazing hot trail it left in its wake was rather pleasant, warming and soothing. Kagome got up and turned to climb up to the steering stand. But, it was rather far up, too far for her hands to reach it even if she stood on the rim of the lifeboat. Which went to show that her counterpart was indeed as small as the picture she'd seen indicated.

"Whatcha doin'?" Inuyasha was ogling up at her, his neck craned.

"Going back inside," Kagome huffed, hopping up, mindful of the narrow landing place she'd have if she – yup – failed to grasp the deck up there. Why didn't they have any windows on the rear of this ship? A nice, broad ledge halfway up the wall certainly would come in handy here.

A chuckle sounded from below when she swaggeringly caught her balance for the third time, still unable to reach the edge in front of the railing, although her tiny jumps had become more daring.

"What's so funny?" she snapped, exasperated and pretty sure she'd managed to thrust a splinter into her palm when she slid down the wooden planks the last time.

"Oh, just, there's no way you'll make this. Without my help, that is," Inuyasha explained casually.

"Oh yeah?" Ignoring the gnawing notion that her pride was out to get her into trouble tonight Kagome braced herself for a full force jump, reckoning that she was bound to get high enough to grasp the edge that way, and wouldn't have to worry about landing. Well, and it'd show that chuckling idiot down there.

However, this turned out to have been a slight miscalculation. Because she got hight enough all right, but the edge of the deck was broader and slipperier than she had anticipated, she never got to grasp it properly and slid helplessly down the planks. Her feet just brushed the lifeboat's rim, she completely lost her footing on the curved side of the boat and overbalanced backwards. Luckily, Inuyasha was not yet so drunk as to completely kill his fast reflexes, he snatched her away, seconds before her head, or worse, neck would have made brutal acquaintance with the opposite rim.

"Don't _do _that! You mad or – no we had that, y'are. Damn, that was close!" He sat down on the bench unsteadily, her awkwardly balanced on his lap.

Kagome waited for her racing heart to calm, which didn't take long because sadly, she was slowly getting used to such thrills. So many near death experiences and the like did that to you. But even when her heart was beating below a hummingbird frequency she felt rather dizzy.

She pushed against his chest to get up but as her relatively warm hand touched his skin through the gaping front of his shirt she started.

"My, you're cold as ice! Maybe you should go inside too."

"Nah," he settled her on the bench in front of him, "Don't wanna. It's pretty an' I'm not cold."

"Tsk, I'm sure you aren't, you're completely plastered, is what you are; you wouldn't feel it if I chopped your arm off now."

"Keh, this counterpart is half youkai; we're tougher'n that."

"Right. But you were half _dead_ from cold before, maybe you shouldn't push your luck," Kagome pointed out irritatedly. Why did he have to be so thick and reckless all of the time? On top of smug and making fun of her even when he didn't seem capable of piecing two coherent thoughts together. She picked up the fur blanket and tossed it to him. "At least take this if you insistist... on stayin'."

He caught it deftly but just glared at her. "'Insistist'? Now who's plastered here?"

"Huh?" Kagome, who'd been busy gazing longingly up to the railing, turned back to him. "Y'mean, I'm drunk? But I only took a teensy sip."

"Hm." Inuyasha nodded wisely, "But tis home brewed rum, and for youkai, that stuff, more alcohol 'n anything else in there."

Kagome tried to analyze her condition. Sure, she was a bit dizzy, and thoughts came a bit slower than usual, and well, her balance had seemed a bit off, and yeah, those were symptoms of alcohol consumption, "But after just one sip?"

Inuyasha shrugged. "If this were our dimension I'd say Asian metabolism, but here? No idea, except, well, you're tiny, and maybe your counterpart don't usually drink?"

"Asian metabolism? Ah, yeah, that's right," The curse of being Asian and having almost no tolerance for alcohol, at least compared to folks from other parts.

"Yeah, it's tricky, but tis what makes boozin' possible for me in the first place. I've too high a resistance to poi- wha'ever."

"Poi-? ...Poison?" Kagome guessed slowly, "So you _do _agree that it's poison!"

"Gah! Y'won't let it slide willya? So what if it's fuckin' poison, not your body, not your business."

"But it ain't your body either. We're just stealin' them! And it's bad enough, what we've done so far." Which brought Kagome straight back to the reason of her previous distress. "We're killing people, and for what? We don't even know!"

Inuyasha flinched when she yelled. Her words seemed to echo in the silence after it, until he carefully asked, "'s that why y've been cryin' before? 'Cause you're feeling bad about that?"

Kagome snuffled. "Hm. It's just... I dunno, who're _we_ to value our lives higher than those of our counterparts?"

"But it's not just _your_ life we're doin' this for, it's to save the universe, right?" Inuyasha said, without much conviction.

"But is it? Do _you_ trust them?"

"Keh! 'Course not," he folded his arms. "Liars, both of them."

"And even if it were true, still, is the universe worth the life of an unsuspecting child?"

"Y'mean my counterpart back there?"

"Hm."

"Can't be sure, but I think he made it."

"You do?" Was this just another pity attempt at consoling her?

"Yeah, you remember I was telephonin' before we left?"

"Hey, yeah, I's meaning to ask about that, what's that about?" She'd completely forgotten through the commotion in the last dimension and the havoc in this one.

"Well, I was callin' an ambulance. The number's on the phone, an' they said they'd come."

Kagome's jaw dropped onto her knees, which she'd hugged to her her chest against the cold. "An ambulance?"

Inuyasha huffed, "What's so surprising 'bout that?"

"Weeeell, first of all, I guess I'd never have thought of that, and secondly..." Kagome smiled half from the relieving hope that the boy might be alright after all, half from something else, which was, "Who do you think you're kidding with all that tough guy attitude? You're nicer than you think, I think."

He sighed. "Am not."

"Are too, sure, why pretend you don't care 'bout anyone else and do stuff like that all the same?"

He kehed, which Kagome found all the more endearing. She hadn't really considered this so far, but Inuyasha was really kind of... cute, somewhere behind all that tough act and defense mechanisms. There was not much to be seen of his usual cockiness and arrogance now. And, another Kagome remarked, he was cute looking, too. Although his counterpart wasn't half bad either, older, certainly, but so was hers.

"Really," she continued, "why are you still trying to keep that act up?"

He returned her questioning glare until she looked away, then he leaned back and sighed. "I'm..." he started in a voice that had Kagome perk up, because it sounded so lost, as if he was talking to someone far away. "I guess it's just... safer that way. If you don't care, you don't sympathize, you don't like... you don't love and so you don't hurt. And you don't hurt anyone else either..."

"But..." she tried, just to say anything at all, but fizzled at the pain that rung in his voice. Somehow, she felt she was beginning to get way out of her depth with Inuyasha. Curiosity or not, maybe it was better not to stir up some emotions.

"Why're you doin' this?" he said warily after a pause.

"What?"

"That." He gestured vaguely. "Bein' so... nice. Like you... whatever."

"Like I what?"

He suddenly stood. "I'm gonna bring you back inside now, else you'll be sick tomorrow."

Now, inside sure sounded tempting, but Kagome felt that it wasn't right to leave. He'd sounded so sad just then, she couldn't imagine anyone who'd like to be left alone feeling like that. She certainly wouldn't. So even if she'd just sit here with him, not prying further, that'd be better than leaving him alone, right? "Just give me the blanket, I'm fine. You're right, it's pretty out here."

He looked up and sighed. Then he tossed her the blanket. "Whatever."

She slid down to the bottom of the boat again and curled up in the blanket. Then she remembered how cold he'd been before and lifted one edge invitingly, "Wanna share?"

He swished around, almost losing his balance, and caught it by flopping down beside her.

"There's enough room, and you were freezing before."

He glared at her scrutinizingly, then shrugged and slipped under the blanket, careful not to let their shoulders touch. Kagome rolled her eyes and scooted closer. "Enough room, but not loads," she mumbled, leaning against him slightly. He didn't protest.

They sat in silence for a while. Kagome looked up to find that the last clouds were gone now and the moon had risen high up in the sky. She half wondered what time it was, but dismissed that thought when suddenly one of the stars came unstuck and fell.

"A shooting star!" she yelled excitedly, "I've never seen one before, never ever!"

"Huh?" Inuyasha looked up from the blanket that had held his attention for the last few minutes "Oh, yeah, look, there's mor'a them."

Which was true, one after the other flared and fell, until there was a whole bunch of meteors dancing over the sky. "That means we get..." Kagome counted, which was hard because they kept moving and disappearing suddenly.

"Thirteen wishes," Inuyasha cut in.

"Damn, that's uneven... but you can have the thirteenth one. Go ahead."

"Keh. Superstitious crap."

"You never done this before?"

"... no, I have."

"Didn't work?"

His head snapped away from the sky and her, "'Course not."

"Maybe it will, you just need to wait a little."

"I made it 'bout twenty years ago... Twenty years from 1984, that is."

"Oh." Kagome sighed, "What did you wish for?"

"... " he turned back to her again, his face betraying nothing.

Kagome giggled. "Afraid it won't come true if you tell?"

"I wished to undo the past. T'right the wrong I've caused. But there ain't no force inna world can do that," he almost whispered, making her choke on her mirth.

"Wrong?"

He pushed away from her. "And stop doing this!"

"Doing what?"

"Asking about me, acting like you've any int'rest in me beyond that I'm helpin' you get back t'your life!"

Kagome flinched like she'd been slapped. "That's what you're thinking? That I'm just, like, using you?"

"Aren't you? Look, I dunno kind of game your playing but it's hella messin' with my head, so stop

it!"

"Maybe I just like you, ever thought about that?" she yelled, not knowing what enraged her more, that he thought so little of her or of himself.

Inuyasha gaped at her. Kagome leaned in to look him in the eyes, still angry. "I mean, yeah, I hardly know you, but that's not because I haven't tried. I'd like to get to know you. I like you." Which was true, Kagome realized. It certainly didn't make any sense, for her to like someone like him, but why else would he keep nagging her, beyond her usual curiosity? It was more than that, more than curiosity. She didn't only want to know about him, she wanted to know why he was the way he was and, like, well, not help him, that would be overestimating herself a lot, but something like that, anyway. Comfort him, maybe.

"You're drunk."

What was that supposed to have to do with this? Kagome sighed, "Drunks don't lie, they say that don't they?"

"But that's bullcrap."

"Well, I'm not lying anyway."

"You can't like me, I'm... you don't even know me."

"I know, I said so myself, but I'd like to." Damn, but she was being very... forward, wasn't she? Maybe he was partly right, maybe it was because she was feeling a bit dizzy that she said those things out loud, but that didn't make them any less true, right?

"You're mad."

"What's mad about wanting to get to know someone?"

"It's mad for you t'wanna get t'know me. You're just a little girl-"

"I'm fifteen."

He nodded, "Just a lil' girl and I'm this... this freak kinda thing."

Kagome waved a hand dismissively. "The hanyou deal again? I told you you're a _person_ is what counts."

"But-"

He didn't get it, did he? Was it so hard to believe that someone might be interested in him just for who he was, not what he was?

"Why do you think you can't sleep if you don't drink? What's happened to make you so... hard? _Why _are you so afraid to relate to people? I could go on for hours like that, I'm so curious. Why did you freak out like that in the last dimension?"

He leaped out from under the cover, crouching on the far end of the boat. "You're just a fuckin' nosy bitch is all!"

The insult rolled off Kagome like water off a swan's wing, she'd worked herself in a downright frenzy. "But I'm not usually like that. It's you, you're making me so prying!"

"Fuckit, this is pointless." Inuyasha stood, and when he spoke his voice had lost its drunken slur, it was clear and hard. "You wanna know why I freaked out like that? 'Cause the way my mind went blank and I completely lost control and... and fucking drank that man's blood reminded me of a night I had successfully banned from my memory until then." He turned towards her, sneering "And what was it that happened that night, I'm sure you were about to ask? Well, I killed one hundred and four humans, some of them what I might have called friends, some of them enemies. And that number's just a rough guess 'cause with most of them you couldn't say which was part of whom. Or if they'd ever been human at all." He crouched down, almost snarling at her "Now fucking tell me, what's there possibly to like about some _thing_ like that? Huh?" And up and away he leaped.

Kagome was left aghast. One hundred and four people? Friends? What the heck was that about? And when did it happen? And what wasn't he telling?

"That doesn't explain anything, you idiot!" She yelled, tears welling up in her eyes, god knew why. And why was he so mad at her, it wasn't like she had any way of knowing that.

Through the mist of her sad confusion, she realized that with him gone she'd probably have to spend the night in this boat. This made her cry even harder. She was so shaken, and so insecure and frustrated, confused and scared, and sad, and missed her mama, and don't forget tipsy, and all of this accumulated into a tight ball of pain in her chest that was hard to breathe around.

Strangely, what grieved her most was that it was her stupid insistent prying that had got Inuyasha so horribly wound up. The image of his face, torn into a mask of anger and sadness and something worse, kept reappearing before her eyes no matter how hard she clenched them shut.

Suddenly, in between sobs, heard someone call from above.

"You down there, human?"

Was that the Kouga guy? Kagome called, "Yes."

"The hanyou said you would, said you were too drunk to get up by yourself." He leaped over the railing and grabbed her as he landed, catapulting them up and right across the steering stand in one go.

"I was meaning to talk to you anyway," he explained when he set her down on the main deck, where the party had reached a rather silent stage, with people sleeping in odd positions in odd places.

"Talk to me?" Kagome echoed dazedly, still feeble from her renewed onslaught of tears.

"Yeah, it's about these birds today. The mutt knew something was up, and he said you had this kind of gift for spiritual things, and warned him." He squinted at her, "Is it true? And then how come I've never seen any of it before?"

Kagome fidgeted. Was it really all that clever to give her counterpart a reputation of being spiritually gifted she would perhaps not be able to live up to when Kagome was gone? On the other hand, how else was she supposed to make herself useful now? And, if she was appointed the ships magician or something, maybe slaughter like that today could be avoided in the future.

"It's true," she assured, and on an afterthought added "Kouga-sama."

"And you haven't told _me_... why?" he asked, irrtated.

"'Cause I didn't know until recently. I didn't really know what to make of it until In - Han-hu-san arrived," she explained, and that was even, in a way, the truth.

Kouga bought it anyway; he relaxed slightly, then continued the questioning, "And now what exactly was it that happened today?"

So she told him. About her feeling of oncoming dread, that'd grown into certainty, and that she thought it came from the collars the bird youkai wore rather than the creatures themselves. That they were possibly being controlled by someone else.

"Fuck, I knew it!" Kouga commented when she finished. "Even scum like these birds don't go serving humans like that; there must be a strong magician, a _human_ magician behind it."

"It felt really, really evil," Kagome supplied.

"This is bad. Damn, should have got this straight earlier." And he turned away from her, marching over to his men and clapping his hands loudly. "All right now, that's it, everyone to the berths now, and who's gonna replace Kaun on the second mast?"

Groaning abounded as the pirates stood and staggered, or, if that proved impossible, crawled over to the hatches until there was only one fit looking one left, who briefly talked to Kouga and leaped up onto the smaller mast at the front of the ship.

Kagome stood and watched, unsure what to do. She certainly wanted to go find Inuyasha and just, well do _something_, most of all say how sorry she was for having bullied him like that, but where to look? Could he have gone down to the mess, too, to sleep? Somehow, that didn't sound likely. Maybe he'd just gone to the bow of the ship instead of the rear? But, when Kagome peered along the moonlit deck she saw it was bare except for a few rolls of rope.

As she stood wondering, Kouga was about to walk past her, then suddenly stopped, and looked at her musingly, "You're not bad looking, for a human, anyone ever told you that?"

"What?" Kagome almost shrieked, from the sheer unexpectedness of it, but he just chuckled and walked on.

"If you're looking for the mutt, he's up in the crow's nest," he called over his shoulder before he disappeared into the cabin house.

The mutt was probably Inuyasha, and the crow's nest... Kagome whacked her brain for a clue, then she remembered. That was the basket up on the mast, where the lookout was. She stepped closer and peered up into the dark. Was that a shimmer of gray white up there? It was hard to tell. Now, how did the crew get up there, anyway? ...ah, yes, they could all jump like overgrown grasshoppers, the lot of them. But there were also those net thingies fastened to a spar, where they climbed around on in the pirate movies she derived her scant knowledge from.

So she tried these, and it was fairly easy to get up, especially since she was feeling less unbalanced already. When she reached the spar she could definitely make out the broody figure of Inuyasha sitting on a circular disk, which was a rather lame excuse for what she'd imagined as a crow's nest. She called up but he didn't answer, no surprise. So, she inched over the horizontal timber as far as she could with the rope that was bound to the mast top in her hands. This was not far enough. Then, awkwardly balancing, she risked a glance downwards, which was a mistake. She hadn't even realized she'd climbed this far!

With her confidence, her balance just evaporated. She shrieked when she began swaying dangerously, and tried to reach the relative safety of the netting again, but no avail. This night was definitely cursed, she was behaving like an utter moron, and that certainly didn't have much to do with pride, which had been getting all the blame up to that point. Why had she climbed up here again?

Thankfully Inuyasha must have been looking, because he cursingly jumped down and caught her just when Kagome had resigned herself and decided to try and jump far enough so she'd hit the water ahead, not the deck below. He wordlessly set her down on the deck again and was about to disappear just as wordlessly when Kagome seized the opportunity and called, "Wait!"

He froze and sighed. "What?" he asked irritably, never bothering to turn around.

What indeed. "I... I'm sorry I was being so pushy it's... you're probably right, I am a nosy bitch."

He snorted "Well, duh," and tensed to leap away but she stopped him again. "Wait!"

He still didn't turn around. "What!"

"I, I don't know, just, no matter what you say you're not as bad. I mean I've no idea what happened, but I'm just sure there's more to it than you let on."

He shook his head. "You've just no idea, woman," he said almost silently and was about to leave, but Kagome latched onto his arm, swinging round to face him.

"But I want to have."

"Why dammit? Don't you fuckin' get it? Didn't you listen?" he grabbed her arms and shook her "One hundred and four people, torn to fucking shreds! I've no idea what happened, but I know it was me who did it! Doesn't that scare you? It sure fucking scares hell out of me!"

No idea what happened? So there _was _more to it! But Kagome restrained herself from asking. It wouldn't do, getting him even more agitated. Bad enough that she had brought the matter up again just now. For all her heart cried at the sight of him desperately trying to convince her that he was some kind of a monster, she was completely at a loss of what to do about it, except repeat what she'd already said. So she carefully reached out a hand and laid it comfortingly (she hoped) against his cheek. "No matter what you say, Inuyasha, I don't think you're evil. Or a freak. Or whatever. But-" she raised her voice when he shook his head and tried to object "But I also see that you're not likely to believe me anytime soon. And I'm dead tired, so just... think about it. Can I really be that mistaken?"

She turned on her heel and ran, without looking back, into the warmth of her cabin, where she, against all odds, found sleep rather soon.

AN.: Yeah, I know, took me long, but its rather long too, and the plot is moving ahead too, isn't it? This chapter marks the beginning of the youkai pirates dimension adventures which will take up quite some chapters from now on, at least... two. Or three. We'll see. For the next chapter, of which I've written on and a half pages already, I can promise a lot of the stuff us fanfiction nerds crave for, like fluff and more fighting, and... oh yeah, jealousy. Hehehe.


	14. Drunk and in Denial

A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale

Chapter 14: Drunk and in Denial

Disclaimer: Not mine.

OO

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Assuming a length of about, um, twelve meters and a height of one and two thirds, why ever they made a room the storage room no normal grown man could stand in, man, that's right, someone as tiny as Kagome's counterpart probably could, and wasn't she responsible for the storage anyway? She'd mentioned something like that, hadn't she – Inuyasha shook his head. A length of twelve, a height of one and two thirds, then a width of about five for the aft and, uh, eight for the fore , something like that, made for a volume of, of, gods this was pointless. The girl was gone, but did she leave him alone? No! He couldn't concentrate on even the simplest calculations, not that it was really imperative to know the volume of the storage room, but it was a welcome diversion... had it worked, which it refused to.

Inuyasha leaned back so abruptly his head hit the mast with a considerable crack, but he was well beyond feeling pain, physical pain, that is. Fuck, why couldn't she have just shut the fuck up about all of it. There he was, pathetically trying to cheer her up, showing her the starry sky, fetching a blanket, being overall nice and even considerate, and how did she repay it? By playing her freaking mind games again, that's how. As if his mind hadn't been played with enough already, by women who wormed their way into his head until they knew which buttons to push... but best not go there now, lest he accidentally take the ship apart to vent his anger. Actually... they even looked a bit similar, now that he was foolish enough to think about it. But, no, no, best not go there, no. Back to the other woma – girl, that's what she was, nothing but a stupid little girl who thought she knew it all.

"I like you, Inuyasha." he mimicked her voice. Keh, the very thought!

It was just ridiculous. Probably she was just a lot drunker than she let on, because how else could she not have freaked out when he told her about... that. Uh, yeah, that was pretty ridiculous, too, how he felt so strangely compelled to tell her all that crap about himself... really, what was the point? It was none of her business anyway!

Although, and this was as ridiculous as it got, for all his insides screamed whenever his awareness only brushed that gagged, bound and locked up memory, finally saying it out loud, making it true, in a way, had felt... relieving. Which was madness, because he'd always expected that the very moment he'd come to accept what happened, that it was him who'd caused all those screams and shrieks and splatter and the sickening smell of blood and guts and gunpowder that crashed down on him every time he slipped into the stage between sleep and vigil, well, he'd expected he'd want to put and end to his shameful existence, really. But, apart from the fact that he was already dead and killing himself here would only have brought him out of the dimension, not out of existence, he did not really feel like dying now, even if only as a sort of self-punishment.

For one it wouldn't do leaving Kagome alone on a ship with a bunch of guys that were not only, well, male, and of a certain age, but also a bit on the wild (and stupid) side. And also, who knew if those motherfuckers up there wouldn't disqualify him if he interfered with their plans like that, then there'd be no reward... His reward, right, now there was a not brain wrecking and heart smashing thing to think about... What to ask for, what to ask for...

Kagome certainly never had had any doubts about what she wanted, which was why he felt he was working for her rather than for those freaks. Gods, this girl was driving him mad! She was impossible, nosy and whiny, and yet... the thought of leaving her alone in all of this was just wrong. He couldn't do it, he knew. Although who knew if she'd want him around anymore when she'd wake up the next morning, sober again, and remember what he accidentally told her. Because she surely couldn't have been serious about the way she reacted.

It was the same as in the last dimension, the fucking nightmare which had triggered all those fond memories in the first place; she didn't seem particularly scared or disgusted or anything. No, she'd gone all calm and serene and had said the most peculiar things. It wasn't like he didn't want to believe her, back then or just now, no, wouldn't it be just wonderful if they were true? If he could really deny his responsibility, act like being oh so sorry was enough to make it all go away? He laughed bitterly.

Yeah right.

Even if he'd been something like unconscious through the whole of it, weren't it his own claws that'd been so thoroughly soaked in blood that no matter how often he washed them a slight rusty sheen remained until he'd just bitten them off? And wasn't it his own skin that stank so much of blood and guts that he couldn't keep any food to himself for weeks after that night? Wasn't it? "I bet there was more to it," he mimicked her. More to it his freaking ass! Following that bullshit line of thought you could just as well go and declare any mass murderer of the world innocent just by diagnosing mental instability. But it didn't work like that. First of all, there were thousands of people who were unstable and still never went and murdered all over the place. And even if he was mad, a freak, a monster, uncontrollable and deadly, he still had enough of a mind the rest of the time, he should have recognized himself for what he was and just killed himself before that fated incident.

Oh but no, all his life before the ban, before... her, he'd fought against it, fueled by false pride and the remaining warmth of his poor deluded mother's love, childishly defying anyone who'd already understood that he was no more than an animal with thumbs and tried to slay him. A fucking century and a half he'd clung to his life, to the idea that he was worth something, that his existence was justified. Clung to it with all he had, all he was. And what for? Only to have it all come slamming back in his face, twice; every time he'd left the relative idyll of his solitary life as an outcast hermit and pathetically tried to make friends (... or more) with the people that had, understandably, shunned him all his previous life. The first time was a joke, he'd thought he'd found someone who was like him and come across a fucking traitorous bitch instead, who'd just gained his trust to finish him off, showing him quite clearly of what incredible importance his existence was to her. And the second time, he'd only managed a few feeble steps towards something like friendship when within the blink of an eye his true nature had surfaced and shown him that he was in no way as human as he'd deluded himself to be. Not only was he insignificant but more so, dangerous. A freak of nature, an accident. Not a smooth fusion of humanity and super-naturalism but a heterogeneous, explosive stew of both, never meant to happen.

But then, when this was all so very crystal clear to him, had he been man enough, oh sorry, of course not _man _enough, but did he have the guts to take the necessary steps and just put an end to it? He didn't. It had taken a freaking accident, a stupid mismeasurement, to finish him off. In the end, he didn't even redeem his honor by being the one to rid the world of the menace he represented.

The shame of it wracked him so much he almost fell from the crow's nest. When he grasped for leverage his hand came across the bottle he'd brought up with him. He pulled it close to look at it. It was only half empty. Every fiber inside burned for him to uncork it and drink until he'd feel no more, until that magical liquid would freeze his blood, and switch off his mind, just like that, until there was nothing but quiet, warmth and the peculiar feeling that the world had stopped spinning, that nothing mattered anymore.

Gods, how he loved that moment, it was beautiful. Seconds before his claws may have dug into the flesh of his palms from anger, his skin might be raw from where his disgust with himself made his hands try to rub away the blood that was gone for decades, but as the liquid burned down his chest he knew with absolute certainty that this last swallow would break the dams, spill his mind and leave it empty.

The mouth of the bottle rested against his own when he stopped at an unbidden thought. Kagome. Gods, she wouldn't leave him alone, would she? Not that this body wouldn't survive a little over-drinking, hanyou were, if nothing else, tough as shit. But, he knew if he emptied the bottle now he'd fall asleep and, tempting as that was, he _was_ still on the lookout here. The birds hadn't looked as if they'd let the wolves get away, certainly there were more of them somewhere, and if what he'd heard Kagome tell that asshole of a first mate was true, they also had a powerful magician to back them up. And, most of the crew was out cold; they certainly weren't prepared for any kind of attack. He'd just have to stay awake through the night; there was no getting around it.

...then again, a little couldn't hurt, could it? With how sidetracked he was, he was hardly a capable lookout. Maybe it was best if he soothed himself a little, so he'd be able to focus better. That sounded about right. He poised the bottle against his lips.

O

He woke with a start, nothing out of the ordinary there, but it was because something had hit his head. He reacted instinctively, shooting up and crouching down, back to the wall. His whole body seared with pain and he squealed, almost falling flat on his face. Then, before he'd even blinked, the wall suddenly began moving, sliding sidewards, and just as he opened his eyes he saw a... sack of some kind barely miss him. But, the loud thud kicked his senses into gear and he became aware of several things at once. Rows of sacks in front of him, which looked rather familiar. The thick smell of dry rice in the air, and another, that smelled like... Ohfuckno.

His eyes hurried to the bundle of fur on the ground by the wall, then he spotted the mess of black hair poking out from it. Surely this wasn't... but there was no mistaking _that_ smell. Ice cold panic gripped him. What the fuck happened?

...right, so he remembered hearing her cry. And sitting in the lifeboat, talking about... Mother fucking hell, had he really gone and told her _that_? Gods, this was why he preferred drinking alone, he got so ridiculously talkative when he was really tanked. But, he forced himself to concentrate on the problem at hand. Well... he'd been on the lookout, something like that, she'd come to bother him again, that was right, and then... ah, yeah, he'd emptied the bottle, unintentionally. Um, it got a bit hazy after that but... oh hell, he'd somehow managed to fall off the crow's nest. Which might explain why his head, arms, ribs and right leg felt like they were in the process of recovering from contusions or fractures. They were. Ouchy. ... OK, after that, he remembered lots of yelling and running about and then... only bits. Like excruciating pain stabbing even through the slime in his drunk to fucks head. Or, yelling at someone for torturing him. But, also having to stop himself from laughing several times because of his ribs. Blurry images of someone crying and him hating himself for it.

He glanced down at himself. He looked like a mummy, all kinds of cloth wrapped around him. Carefully, he lifted an arm. It hurt but he didn't think it was broken. The mast was tall and this body was a bit weaker than his own but still tough enough.

"Inuyasha?" a groggy voice came from his right. He started and flinched. About his ribs, he was not as sure, breathing was hard. Kagome sat up on her furs and peered at him through her bangs with half closed eyes. He panicked again. Gods, why couldn't he remember properly what happened!

"Are you better now?" she asked, stretching and revealing, to Inuyasha's massive relief, a body clad in several layers of clothing, the same as the day before. She got impatient when he didn't answer.

"Hello? I'm talking to you, what are you staring at?" He tore his gaze away from her but it was too late, she'd seen it, and misunderstood, of course. She blushed and covered herself in the blankets, muttering "Hentai," but he hardly noticed.

"What happened last night?" he asked instead, because no matter how he whacked his brain he couldn't piece it together.

She frowned, half sad, half mad. "You were so drunk you fell off the mast top. Gave everyone a terrible fright, well, those who were awake anyway. Kouga was this short of throwing you overboard but somehow everyone managed to convince him that you were worth keeping. It seems you've quite the fan club among the younger pirates." What the hell ever, but why did she have to look so disapproving about it? She'd been the one to tell him to go mingle.

"Then I was told to patch you up, I brought you here, you acted like I was trying to skin you, then you..." she blushed and Inuyasha panicked yet again.

"What?" he almost whined.

She gestured vaguely. "You got all... nice. Telling me... nice things. Like that I was nosy as hell but... cute."

"Wh-what the fuck?" he dropped down onto his butt.

Kagome sighed, "Look, I know you were drunk, I didn't think much of it, it was just nice." But, she was still rather reddish.

_This_ was exactly why he preferred to drink alone. You never knew just what crap you'd go and spill if you hung around people... Although, he had to admit, if he were honest, from a neutral point of view, she was cute. Probably. Not that he was any expert on the matter. No doubts about the nosy part, though.

"Are you better now?" Kagome asked again, and this time he answered.

"'Course, hardly smarts anymore." Big fat lie, but oh, well. He couldn't come off as a total wimp if he wanted her to take him seriously again. After last night, he wouldn't put it past her, past anyone for that matter, if she didn't.

Last night, that was right, why wasn't she freaking out about it already? Where was the fear? The blind panic? Why wasn't she running away? He'd been fairly certain she would, as soon as what he said sank in. But, she was just crawled over, asked if he minded and, when he shook his head perplexedly, peeled the bandages off to look at his wrist.

This was madness. Not only didn't she seem to mind having him around, no, she came even closer and really didn't seem affected by his proximity at all. She took his wrist gently and turned it a bit.

"It really looks a lot less swollen than it did last night," she turned his palm upwards, "and the scratches are almost gone. Wow." She looked at him. "Your counterpart sure heals fast."

This would be his cue to explain how this counterpart was nothing against the real him, but he was too flustered. While she really didn't seem to mind at all, for him, having her so close after last night, after what she said he'd said, was more unnerving than usual. And, even though he was careful not to let it show, he already got a bit uneasy with her nearby under normal circumstances.

He let her pull his leg straight and unwrap that too; he was too busy not looking at her to protest. She didn't even need to put new bandages on it.

When she reached for the bandages around his torso, he finally got a grip and swatted her hands away. "No, I said I was fine, just leave it," and he got up. Best get the hell away from her, no matter how relaxed she seemed to be about everything, it might after all just be fake. And he didn't think she'd be able to keep it up much longer if he hung around. And, no matter what she really thought of him now, he wasn't up for it, no way.

So, he left the room mumbling some excuse about work to do, returning only to retrieve his shirt and jacket, which looked worse for wear, but since when did he care, and fled into the mess. That, of course, was hardly any better, because everyone poked fun at him, some even gave him shit about it, but, on the other hand, at least those were reactions he could understand. It only got really unpleasant when Kouga dropped by to berate him excessively for his lack of responsibility in front of the crew. Fuck, how he hated that pompous motherfucker with all his funny little nicknames for him. Kagome had been right, a few of the guys were indeed on his side, and they voiced tentative objections when Kouga got insulting. Tentative because it was obvious that pretty much everyone seemed to be rather afraid of the wolf, why the fuck ever Inuyasha didn't know, since he was a complete and utter wimp.

"I can still beat it, you know. As I recall, _you_ were the one who wanted me to join you," he burst out in the end, when Kouga had just explained how it was really not very surprising that he'd knocked himself out since you couldn't expect a _dog_ to have any sense or self restraint.

Kouga laughed haughtily. "Oh yeah? I'd like to see that. The coast is about a week's sail away, by _ship_. But go on, doggy, leave, why don't you?"

"I'll swim if I have to," Inuyasha snarled back, "But I'd love to see how you'll fare without me when those birds return with backup to take their revenge."

Hadn't thought of that, huh? Kouga's grin dimmed a little. Inuyasha's grew smug.

"But I'll do you the favor of staying, don't you worry your little head, Wolfie."

The crew was taken aback at his obvious disrespect, gasping and scrambling backwards when Kouga's expression grew thunderous.

"What was that!" he forced out between clenched teeth.

"You heard me alright. You bunch of losers wouldn't last a second against those freaks without me."

Kouga convulsed. What was he so worked up about, it was nothing but the truth.

"Take it back and your death will be painless," the wimpy wolf threatened.

Inuyasha kehed. "Go fuck yourself, w-" was far as Inuyasha got before Kouga toreinto him. His ribs protested but he ignored it, this was just what he needed, a little venting his frustration. Nothing like a good fight to take your mind right off... things.

He shoved the wolf off and aimed a punch at his gut but he evaded backwards, twisting and leaping up through the deck hatch. Inuyasha followed suit, latching onto his legs and hauling him onto the planks. He came up undeterred. Now this one might even pose a bit of challenge, unlike that puppy from yesterday, Inuyasha thought absently while he kicked Kouga into the railing. But, he was up faster than Inuyasha anticipated, and landed an unexpected punch right onto his jaw. Within the seconds it took for his mind to clear he received a kick in the gut that sent him crashing against the wall of the deck house. He forced himself to stay focused this time and managed to evade Kouga's full body, elbow in stomach slam, barely. He rolled to the side, sprang to his feet and raked a mean swipe with his claws across Kouga's chest to buy himself some time. The breast plate shredded with an excruciating noise. But, Kouga payed it no heed. Inuyasha had barely taken a leap back when he was onto him again, knocking him to the ground where they wrestled for the upper hand. You had to hand it to the wolf, he was fast, but his counterpart was stronger. He managed to get Kouga underneath him, keeping him down with his knees on the other's shoulders, and smashed his fists into his face repeatedly until he was thrown off. When he hit the wall again he felt his ribs give. They hadn't been healed up completely, the strain had been too much. But there was no time to whine, Kouga was charging fast. Then suddenly someone yelled "Stop it!" and a figure moved between them.

Kagome. And Kouga was too fast to stop now. Ignoring the searing pain in his chest Inuyasha grabbed her and leaped up, his feet just grazing the top of Kouga's head.

He landed and set the girl down.

"Are you completely out of your mind, woman?" he yelled when he was sure that Kouga would not attack again. He was picking himself off the wall he'd crashed into and turned to watch them, baffled.

"I could ask you that!" Kagome answered angrily, and Inuyasha took a step back at her thunderous expression. "What do you think you're doing here? You fell from the top of the mast yesterday, for gods' sake. You shouldn't even be moving!"

"Um." was his elaborate reply.

"What's this even about – no wait, don't tell me I just know I won't believe it."

_Gee, she's awfully mad, isn't she?_

"Get off of my back, woman, who are you, my mother? I know what I'm doing!" he snapped back, just to give some kind of retort.

"Yeah, I can see that. Must be why you're drinking on a small disk thirty feet above ground. Or why you're drinking at all!"

Fuck, she couldn't shut up about that, could she? Why did she have to keep pestering him with her little girl's ideas of alcohol consumption?

Of course, a crowd had gathered, watching him, for the second time that day, be berated, made out an utter fool in public. Now if he weren't feeling the lowest possible already he might get the idea that Karma was throwing some hints for him here to get the point across, since it couldn't go and write 'Fuck you, Inuyasha' across the sky.

"Just get off my case," he snarled, to maintain a bit of his self respect – ha ha – and stomped off. For all the fight with Kouga had proved the perfect diversion, to be continued any convenient time, if he had any say in it - fat lot of good it'd done him as soon as _she_'d stepped in. That girl was bad news. Maybe she didn't do it on purpose, but she regularly pushed him further over the edge than he'd been in years. He should have known, really. From the moment he'd first met her, his emotions had been rollercoastering, with a lot more sudden downward jerks than creeping up. The fact that he had any emotions to speak of was unnerving enough, since apathy was his preferred state of mind. Although, he admitted as he slammed doors behind him, he'd always sucked at the whole no-feelings-at-all concept that seemed to come so easy to some people.

Then there were no more doors to barge through and slam shut and Inuyasha noted with puzzlement that he was now standing in the rice storage room, also known as Kagome's counterpart's cabin, for lack of a better term. He just barely restrained himself from taking his frustration out on the rice sacks. What the fuck was he doing here of all places?

He turned to barge out again but the door opened and the person he was actually planning to avoid stepped in. She was crying, or rather, not far enough from doing so for Inuyasha's tastes. Her face was the essence of confusion when she saw him standing there. He wanted to storm past her and never see her again, but he wasn't halfway across the room when her lower lip started trembling. He jerked to a halt, panicking.

"I'm sorry!" he burst out before he knew what he was doing, because it was, strangely, the first thing that came to his mind.

She looked at him, frowning, with a single tear lurking on the dark feathery rim of her left eye's lashes, waiting to drop and make him feel like a bastard.

"What for?" she asked testily, bordering on angry.

"For... being not... so nice, I..." he faltered, gods, what was he doing here anyway? He didn't know what he was sorry for, but when she cried he felt like he was.

She drew up an eyebrow and the movement spilled the dreaded tear. Inuyasha looked away.

"Not so nice? That's a bit of an understatement, don't you think? I was up half of the night, patching you up and you have nothing better to do than get into a stupid fight in that condition and ruin my work. And when I point this out to you you act like I am just trying to insult you."

He felt good old anger coming on again at her righteous tone, but he restrained it for the sake of something undefined that told him to lift her mood before he went about Avoiding her, the plan B alternative to the, obviously, failed plan of Not Letting Her Get To Him.

"I, I know I overreacted, it's just, I don't like being told how stupid I am in public." In front of that asshole Kouga, no less.

She sighed, but not tearfully, so Inuyasha risked a glance. She was smiling, kind of.

"No one likes that, Inuyasha. I'm sorry too, it was unfair of me, and I overreacted too. I'm just worried, you know? And not about this mission before you think that again, but about you. You get hurt enough, don't you? You don't have to go and make it worse by... being like that."

He nodded, unsure what to respond. But she didn't seem to be sad or angry any more, so he grumbled some excuse and left the room, hurriedly. He returned after a minute, ears burning,to ask for a new patch-up job, but then, when she was done, he really set out to avoid her.

O

Try as he might, there was no avoiding her. And, he did try.

As he was officially supposed to be resting and healing, no one was keen to give him something to do, especially something high up in the rigging, where she was unlikely to turn up. But, when he went down into the mess he was greeted by that bunch of idiots who for some reason thought he was _the man_, or something. And, they wouldn't let him go, even when Kagome crossed the room to go who knew where, before he had sworn that he didn't really think they were a bunch of losers and that he'd only said it because he was so pissed about Kouga, not them. Which was true, they were OK guys; if a bit... slow, in some respects. But when Kagome walked past for the second time - really, was she doing this on purpose? There were tons of other ways down to the storage rooms! - he had to leave. He practically shoved the guy currently on the lookout off the crows nest, but the blissful solitude lasted only until Kouga turned up, seething, to demand what the fuck he thought he was doing, and it was just the memory of Kagome's, there she was again, worried face that kept him from starting another fight with him about it.

Next he went for the lifeboat, and that was actually all right until he heard cursing from somewhere on the deck, and then, to his horror, the smell of human blood. It turned out Kagome had had to stitch up a net they used for fishing when necessary, and had managed to scratch her palm with the thick bone needle. Of course, no-one else gave a damn, so he dragged her to the galley to get her patched up and then stitched the net up for her, which was hella fumbly but at least he managed without the self-mutilation.

Of course she had to go act like he'd done something really incredible, and be all nice about it, and before he knew what was happening they were sitting there talking about crap. Well, she was talking, telling him funny little stories from her needlework lessons at school; the teacher must have been a right nutcase. It was all right, though, until that asshole Kouga intruded. First the wolf gave him shit about doing what he distastefully called 'human work'. Then, consistency obviously wasn't for him, he shamelessly hit on the member of said species that was sitting right in front of him.

"And you," he turned on Kagome and she flinched, which Inuyasha silently disapproved of. What was there to be afraid of? He was a wimp! The wolf boy's eyes narrowed speculatively and a leer twisted his face. "Not only are you not half bad looking, you've got spunk too, woman! How ever did you manage to hide all this from me so far, huh?" he joked, and Inuyasha bristled. What was he saying! What the fuck was this about? And why wasn't Kagome saying anything, just, why oh why, blushing and looking humbly down?

"Fuck off, Wolfie!" he burst out.

Kouga immediately turned on him, tensed to fight.

"What was that?"

"Gods, what are you, a freaking answering machine? Why do you only ever have one thing to say when I'm addressing you? 'What was that?' That was me telling you to go fuck off and leave her alone!"

Kouga eyed him suspiciously. "I've been wondering before, have the two of you met before? You seem awfully close, for people who met just a day ago."

"That's your business... how?" Inuyasha snapped levelly, which probably was not such of a good idea in hindsight.

"You could, for all I know, be conspiring to start a mutiny!" Kouga hazarded suspiciously.

"Right," Kagome suddenly cut in. "of course we haven't met before, you yourself gave me the order to attend to him, and I'm sure you're aware that's kind of a full time job," she explained matter-of-factly, and Inuyasha bristled, did she have to make it sound like he was an out of control four year old?

"That's right," Kouga said a bit perplexedly. Confused, tense, and angry silence descended upon them, until a call rose from somewhere at the stern. Kouga grinned over his shoulder as he walked off, "Our puppy's a handful, I'll give you that, but I'm sure you'll manage just fine, woman." He winked and leaped to join the wolves that had called for him.

"What the fuck is this about!" Inuyasha ground out as soon as the fucker was out of ear shot.

"What do you mean?" Kagome looked at him confusedly. "I'm sorry I just made you look stupid again but I really didn't know how else to get him to stop suspecting us."

"Yeah, you had no choice but to suck up to him, I'm sure," Inuyasha bit out, getting up, the half finished net falling off his lap. "Well, I'm off."

"Where to? And what ab- oh, come on, what do you suggest I should have said instead? With someone as full of himself as Kouga you just know 'sucking up' is his lever."

"Yeah, and while you're at it, why not throw in a bit of a joke at my expense?"

"I said I was sorry Inuyasha, and I certainly didn't mean what I said then."

Yeah sure. Trouble is, he could see her point, he _had _been getting into a bit of a lot of trouble since they'd entered this dimension. There was no way of denying that it had been entirely his own fault that he'd fallen off the crow's nest, thus keeping Kagome from a well deserved night of undisturbed sleep, among other things... but best not go there, hadn't he actually been feeling a bit less wretched not so long ago? Like, before that asshole had popped up?

"Still, I don't get how you can be so nice to that pompous, up his-own-ass jerk! He's treating you humans like shit on the one hand and shamelessly hitting on you on the other and, well, need I say more?"

"...why is this bothering you so much anyway?"

"Keh. Nothing's bothering me, I just don't get it is all!"

"I mean I appreciate your concern," she went on, ignoring his protest, "But it's really no big deal. Miroku told us what to expect."

Inuyasha opened his mouth, then closed it. Wasn't she the one who was usually all for the righting of the wrong and crap? And this was wrong, right? Kouga _had_ been shamelessly hitting on her. Didn't that bother her, make her feel, uneasy? And if it didn't, why would she always freak out like that when _he_ made some harmless, innocent, not to be taken serious allusion?

Inuyasha suppressed a groan. This was exactly why he should have stuck to his plan of avoiding her. He just had no control of his train of thought with her around, it did as it pleased, bothering him with useless shit like this.

But, and this was probably what it all went down to, if she had no trouble being so nice to a dickhead like Kouga, then what good did it do him if she kept insisting she liked him? Who, after all, wanted to be liked by someone with such a totally distorted perception of reality? This meant, Inuyasha realized with a note of terror, that he had until now rather liked the idea of her liking him, insane as it was.

He watched her warily out of the corner of his eye. She was still waiting for him to respond to what she'd said, looking at him with a slight frown and fiddling with the net. Yup, alright, seeing her sit there, her attention focused on him, with this half bemused half concerned expression did make him feel kinda... good. It shouldn't have, of course, because the Kouga incident just proved that she either had awful taste in men, rather, people, or was just too plain nice to expect anyone else not to be, but the idea that there was someone who... gave a bit of a damn about him was comforting. Indeed, as he'd accused her last night, she made him feel like he mattered, and that was, even thought he knew, intellectually, it wasn't true, a damn pleasant feeling.

He could almost feel the hair on the back of his neck rise when the note of terror exploded into an overture. This was bad. It was one thing to accept the fact someone was, by general standards, a good, if annoying person, but as soon as that person started to make you feel good in her company things got complicated. Way more complicated than Inuyasha could cope with. And besides, he'd had that before, right? A girl displaying interest in him and him running head first into that trap.

He got abruptly up. So he absolutely needed to avoid her, now more than ever.

"Where are you going?" she asked, of course, when he was bracing himself for a jump to somewhere high up in the rigging.

"Away," he said levelly.

"But..." she furrowed her brow a bit helplessly, "what about the net? Could you perhaps show me how this is done before you go?" and, when he was about to shake his head and tell her off, "Please?"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes resignedly. He just knew she'd try to do it by herself if he didn't and she'd end up hurt again. You only had to take one look at how large the needle looked in her tiny hands. He crouched down and took it, then gathered the net in his arms and rose again.

"I'll finish it," He motioned to the rear of the ship behind him with his head. "Just go ask for something else to do if you absolutely have to."

He was gone before she could object.

O

The next few days reminded Inuyasha acutely of those paranoia driven days back in the late sixties before he'd come to accept that pot maybe wasn't for him. He really went out of his way to avoid Kagome, but she was fucking everywhere! He wasn't granted a minute's rest, constantly on edge and ready to run for it if she turned up, which she did all of the freaking time. Granted, there where only so many places to go on a ship, even a large one like this. Still, if he didn't know better he'd have said she was following him... but did he even know better? Of course, there were the times when she was indeed looking for him, to take a look at his wounds or ask about one thing or another. He mentally whacked himself across the head for having offered her his help in the first place. But, there where other times, like the time when he'd gone into hiding in the gun deck, which was usually deserted if it wasn't in use. He'd just been beating his spotty memory for what he knew about ballistics, just in case this would come in handy later on, when suddenly Kagome came stumbling out of a door. She'd said she was lost, but really, they had been on this ship for three days by then, and it wasn't _that_ large. Or like the time he'd joined Taro in the storage room for a nap on the furs and she came in with the brilliant excuse that she didn't have anything else to do. Or like the time he'd concluded the last place where she was likely to be, what with the way she was always running around looking for him, was her own cabin. He'd barely closed the door behind him when she came in, looking exhausted and smelling of fish, and this time she didn't even need an excuse.

Surely that couldn't be just paranoia? Well, alright, she did look more confused and sad with every fast exit he pulled, and she was probably wondering why they hadn't exchanged more than a few words during the last few days, so maybe even if she was following him, she was entitled to it. Still, it was driving him nuts!

And that fucking asshole Kouga didn't help, with his refusal to give him watch duty, because the crow's nest was the one place on the ship were Kagome was really unlikely to turn up. Not that he gave a particular damn about what Wolfie Boy said he could and couldn't do, and there was enough room for two up there, but try as he might he couldn't convince himself that keeping away from Kagome was worth having some of them pirate idiots chew his ears off about their favorite subject: the booty they'd already laid paws on and the adventurous hardships that had allowed them to. It was interesting right until you realized that they all told the same fucking story, something about stealing a crown right off some king's head, each of them, of course, claiming to have been the glorious perpetrator.

So, when she cornered him again on their sixth day aboard, it wasn't because he hadn't tried to prevent it, but he'd run out of places to hide. And, maybe trying her chamber again hadn't been the brightest of ideas, but, he'd reasoned, if he was going to have to sit around doing nothing and waiting for her to pop up and ruin his cool he might as well do it somewhere nice. Not that she had a particularly nice room there, but, yeah, it still was, somehow, nice, like, to sit around in.

"Oh thank gods I found you!" she cried when she stepped into the room and her obvious delight froze him mid desperate-leap-for-freedom-and-solitude.

"I've been looking for you all over the place, please, I really need you to help me, I'm at my wit's end," she blurted out, closing the door and leaning against it. Inuyasha stood frozen, carefully avoiding the dreadful realization that he'd missed his chance for escape because he'd been, for one second, deluded she was glad to see him and, this was where it got way beyond dreadful, had been glad to see her, too. Gods, he was in so much trouble here.

Of course she wasn't glad to see him, or rather, of course she was glad to see him, she wanted something from him.

"What?" he asked. Her smile waned at his harsh tone.

"Uhm. This is actually kind of... er, I mean, I've got it figured by now that people don't, you know, wash, on this ship. I asked the cook's wife and she looked at me like I'd spoken Vulcan. But I've been wearing the same clothes all week and I'm beginning to, gods, doesn't anyone else smell it?"

Inuyasha sniffed, straining to make it not too obvious. She smelled fine, he thought. Intrusive, impossible to ignore, doing something alarming to someplace deep inside his guts, and not exactly like roses, but fine. Of course, he wasn't going to let her know that, heaven forbid.

"There's only so much water you can take along on a boat, it gets foul too soon and what's there is for drinking and cooking," he explained instead, shrugging. "How am I supposed to help you with that?"

She blushed. "I really, really want to wash. Really. But the water's rationed, and only the cook has the keys, and washing with saltwater is a bit... besides the point, not that I didn't try. Um. The lock on the water storage room is not that big actually, and I was wondering..." her voice died in a whisper. Inuyasha understood. He burst out laughing.

"You want me to steal water for you? Oh, that's rich! After giving me hell over a bit of harmless shoplifting you're asking me to go and steal these people's _water_?" _Yes, yes, _cheered a part of him, go there, angry is so much better than dangerously confused, it is! "You're such a hypocrite, woman, you know that?" He ignored the other part of him, the one that went _nooooooo_ at her sad and angry frown.

"I wasn't going to ask you to do that!" she snapped, "I was just hoping you could... Gods I know this isn't exactly the most legitimate thing to do, but I feel like a pig, and saltwater just makes you all raw and sticky! I was hoping you could perhaps take a look at the lock and tell me how to get inside." She looked to the side. "OK. That's not really much better, I. I'm sorry I asked I'm just a bit... tetchy at the moment," she mumbled and turned to open the door again.

"No wait," Inuyasha said, flinching at how pathetic he sounded. But 'tetchy' and a bit of something in her smell that he'd failed to identify until now had clicked into place, and oh gods."It's OK, show me that lock. I'll see what can be done."

Her grateful and embarrassed smile did something to his insides that could not be healthy and he followed her through the ship with a sense of doom. Trouble didn't even begin to describe the mess he was getting himself into here.

The lock was an easy pick and she really fetched hardly more than a large mug full. Inuyasha only half payed attention anyway, largely diverted by the ice cold hand of despair gripping his heart. He nodded absent-mindedly when she thanked him and hurried off. There was but one thing to be done in this situation, Inuyasha knew. And the lock on the liquor storage room was hardly larger than this one, he happened to know.

O

He awoke, for the second time inside this dimension, on Kagome's pile of furs and with a death wish inspiring hangover. Kagome didn't seem to be around, and he was glad for it, thankful, exhilarated. Maybe he'd be able to sneak out before she returned and just jump off the ship. What did he think he was _doing_?

Fragments of last night came floating back to him and he barely refrained from hitting himself, the memory of a twisted wrist returning just in time. Ohmygods he'd fallen off the rigging. No one'd heard this time, because he'd half caught himself and been up and away fast enough. Yeah, and then crawling into Kagome's room had seemed a _brilliant_ idea, why sure, she smelled so nice it was a lot easier sleeping with her around. Never mind that he'd gotten one hell of a lecture about drinking again, sheesh, who was she, his mother? Never mind he'd gone and _told her about that embarrassing episode from during the War when he'd taken in an orphaned lion kitten and how he'd left Africa in tears when it'd been shot_.

Inuyasha leaped to his feet, ignoring nausea and pains. Clearly, up until now, he hadn't treated the task of avoiding the girl with the required determination. But that was going to change! He could never in his whole life face her again and not want to kill himself, so he wouldn't. No matter what anyone might say, until they were meeting up with that dickhead Kouga's father, he was going to take up residence in the rigging and not come down again. Even then he'd only hop down, knock the Captain out, take the shard, hurl it at Kagome, from very much afar, hardly eye shot, and wait for her to get them out of the dimension. Infallible!

"Oh, you're awake."

Not allowing himself a single glance Inuyasha pushed past the girl in question, who

appeared with a bowl of rice and a frown while he was distracted with his mental rant.

"Wait, Inuyasha what are you – don't you want to eat something? You were sick last night, you must be hungry!"

That's right, he'd puked his guts out, too, barely reaching the deck in time. The memory only spurred him on in his flight. With a "No thanks," he stumbled out into the corridor, and headed for the rigging immediately. Up there he sat for hours staring numbly and entertaining pleasant fantasies in which he was full youkai, that night on the docks by Tokyo had never happened, he'd never drunk himself to death, and, most of all, never met that infuriating little girl!

Normally, in such a no-way-out situation, he'd drink, but with the way it backfired last night he was, for the first time in years, more afraid to drink that to sit and face the truth of his thoughts and emotions.

It only proved what that girl was doing to him was dangerous.

He actually did manage to avoid her for the following week or so, and after less than a day she stopped whisper-calling up to him, he noted, not without contempt. Life up in the rigging was great, really, liberating, and it was almost odd how willingly the crew and even the wolfy-boy took to his never explained decision. Some of those fools who got all excited around him even brought up stuff to eat, so he really only had to hop down for the head. He knew a thing or two about sailing and large ships, having worked on the docks by Tokyo all through the late forties and early fifties, so he had no trouble keeping busy up there.

If it hadn't been for the obnoxious way the wolf boy trailed after Kagome, pestering her with the most ridiculous excuses - as if there was that much to discuss about her stupid spidey-sense, really - if it wasn't for that he might have thought things were looking up a week later. But the wolf boy seemed to be hovering near Kagome whenever she came onto the deck and fuck, who knew what was going on underneath?

The fuckhead became distracted when his father wasn't at the agreed meeting point and pestered Kagome a bit less after that, as they sailed towards where the new ship was supposed to be coming from, but Inuyasha was not fooled. So painfully obvious were his lame come ons that even Kagome recognized them for what they were, despite the mist of naiveté she peered at the world through. But did she tell him off, call him 'Hentai' in that squeaky-embarrassed voice she used on him? No! She blushed, she looked aside, disappeared with lame excuses and all other kinds of pudding-for-backbone crap!

By the end of their second week on the ship, his little fan club was decimated, he'd snapped and groused and yelled at each of them one time to many, it seemed. Surely no-one could expect him to be their little sunshine when he was forced to witness that skin-crawlery crap going on right below him every other hour or so?

But, a bit of sour fodder for his pride, that wasn't what made him come down from the rigging at last. It was the ship they came across two days after they were supposed to meet up with the Captain. The guy on the lookout had spotted it twenty minutes beforehand, sight was bad that day, and a few minutes later, they all saw it, drifting, ripped sails blowing in the wind, in a bed of wreckage. Of course, never a bunch to give away an opportunity for a bit of pillaging, the pirates decided they'd stray off course to check it out. As they got closer, it became clear that what everyone had assumed were pieces of wood and such, were in fact corpses, an easy dozen of them. Then a kind of silent scream went through the crew when they recognized the ship as the one they'd been looking for. Inuyasha pieced together as much from the similarity between the corpses and the wolf youkai around him, and explained this to Kagome when he found her, breath heaving with distress at the sight of the carnage ahead.

It was a slaughter, and there was little doubt about who might have been the slaughterers. Even if Inuyasha hadn't recognized the messy style of the birds, hacking and dismembering, the turquoise-gray feathers strewn across the blood-drenched ship were a dead give-away. A wail rose after what must have been ages of dumbfounded staring, a wail, then a howl that was echoed by the other ships that'd drawn up alongside them. As if it'd taken that sound to shake them out of their shell-shocked paralysis, the crew got into motion, jumping over to the ship and into the water, recovering the corpses and looking for hints as to how the fight might have proceeded, apart from the very obvious end. They lay the dead in a long line on the deck of the main ship, coming together and, under much pausing to howl, salvaged what was still usable off them. Kagome seemed horrified but didn't comment this time, maybe she remembered that such behavior was to be expected.

Faced with all this acute mourning and almost tangible, helpless ire Inuyasha felt useless, all in all. He wasn't one of them; it was unclear how he was supposed to react. And, contrary to what everyone else must think, he was not really well versed with pirate or youkai customs of this dimension, so really, he hardly knew what to _feel_. Kagome was a lot more decided, it seemed, but still they both ended up hovering awkwardly as the wolves released their fallen mates to the sea a second time. He was just hovering uselessly and Kagome was hovering trembling with fear or disgust or sympathy or anger or a mixture of these emotions.

"It's not right," Inuyasha was surprised to hear himself say, after a good hour of silence. What was that supposed to mean anyway, except, it was what it felt like. Even if the wolf pirates had attacked a ship that was being escorted by the birds, even if they had been willing to kill to get at their booty, none of that warranted this kind of gruesome massacre. If what Kagome was saying was true, and the birds were not doing this of their own accord but were pressed into servitude by some magician, then that only made it worse.

"It's not. No," Kagome agreed after a while, and they looked at each other. Suddenly Inuyasha remembered that he was avoiding her, and that this was the longest conversation they had in quite some time. But at her confused and angry frown he found he couldn't remember why.

They watched as the last corpse slipped into the sea and took the sense of grief with it. Suddenly the wolves looked tense, and gripping their weapons tighter they gathered together, looking expectantly up to Kouga, who had surveyed the ceremony of burial from atop the rear cabin.

"Father would never have attacked a fleet large and important enough to be escorted by the Gokuraku-chou alone. He is brave, but not foolish. They must have been waylaid. Attacked without provocation and, I'm sure, without a warning. Most of the weapons were still in their fastenings, and the cannons are new, none of them has been fired, even once," he explained, voice sombre and hard. "My father's body," he stepped forward and gripped the railing; "my father's body was not among the fallen. Neither is there a trace of our sister Kaname to be found. What we did find, was this," and he held up a flower, white petals stained red brown, with wolf youkai blood, no doubt. "Does anyone recognize this? You should, Han-hu," he said, in Inuyasha's direction, and at first Inuyasha didn't understand, so unexpected was it to be addressed with his counterpart's real name from the wolfy-jackass. At Inuyasha's confused silence, Kouga frowned and continued. "It's a flower from the Sheian Islands in the South, I'm sure. This is bait. They have taken father. They have taken Kaname. We will not rest until we have freed our pack mates and avenged our brothers. Set course for Port Oogami. We'll stock up before going South."

Silently, with tight grimaces on their faces, the wolf youkai set to work.

The mood on the ship, the next few days, gave Inuyasha a massive headache. It wasn't like he'd enjoyed being pestered by inanely cheerful wolf-puppies all of the time, but now that everyone seemed to be under a spell of grim efficiency he realized he hadn't terribly minded being pestered in that way, either. He wasn't spending all that much time up in the rigging anymore because, loath as he was to admit it, even silently, it was too depressing, even for him, to sway up there in the icy wind and see those helplessly determined frowns wherever he looked, on faces he'd known only to laugh and boast.

In order to not go completely bonkers, he started hanging around Kagome more, again. They weren't really talking much, except about the shard, which, since Kagome didn't feel anything, they guessed still had to be on the Captain who was hopefully still alive somewhere. But often they would work alongside each other and it was keeping the wolf away whose personal way of coping with his losses was to quadruple his persistent come on attempts, not that Inuyasha cared, beyond the fact a bit of insult throwing and almost-fighting with the wolf boy was balm for his nerves. Now, if only the woman didn't insist on behaving like it was perfectly normal to be harassed that way, and never once thanked him for getting the wimp to fuck off, then his nerves might even stay soothed, but it was no use. He was sticking close, although it did him almost physical harm to look at her and remember all the ridiculous crap he'd told her, ohgodswhy, but did she thank him? No, she was silent and almost broody and hardly smiling and ...well. He had purposefully ignored her for a full week and she had gotten whiny over less time alone, back in that fucked up dimension where she was blind.

Inuyasha gripped the net they were busy pulling out of the water tighter. Damn, he was feeling like apologizing again, and it was beginning to piss him off.

"That flower, I was meaning to tell you, Inuyasha," she said and Inuyasha almost dropped the net, startled.

"What, now?"

They heaved the net over the port railing and fish toppled onto the deck. Kagome looked up at him.

"The flower Kouga thinks the birds left as bait, I saw something like it before."

"Where?" he asked, "In this dimension?"

"H-hm." she nodded. "My counterpart, she's got a little box with, you know, personal stuff." She blushed faintly and Inuyasha wondered, _personal stuff?_ "And there's a necklace, a chain with a silver pendant, and it looks like that flower, almost exactly."

They both looked over to the main mast, where said flower was wilting with a nail through its center.

"It even has a red stone in the middle. The real flower is red there, too." She handed him a first fish to gut. "Do you think my counterpart comes from those islands, perhaps?"

Fish guts spilled onto the planks and Inuyasha was glad to look away, at Kagome. There had been, all in all, to much blood and guts, even for his liking, in this dimension. "Dunno," he answered offhandedly. "Maybe it's just something that was given to her, or something she stole. I mean, who knows what she did before the wolf youkai took her."

"That's right." Kagome put the gutted fish into the salt keg. "We, at least, have no idea."

O

"You have got to be kidding me." Inuyasha shifted feet and glared at Kouga, who was glaring back with exasperation.

"Look, dog turd, I wouldn't dream of ordering you, of all people, to do this if I had a choice. But this is our sea. People will recognize our ships, people will recognize our faces, the military will pop up, we'll get delayed. I don't want that, but we need the information, any information we can get. All I'm asking is you row over to Port Hakume and ask around about the Sheian Islands and those rotten birds. S'not too hard, even for you, is it?"

"That fucking harbor isn't even in sight! I'll be rowing for hours. And what's making you so sure I'm not going to just leg it, once I'm ashore?"

Kouga grinned, the asshole. "Where'd you go to? You lost your ship, you lost your crew, and besides, don't go telling me you don't want to have a go at those bird freaks."

That, and this was his only reliable way to the shard. Also, it wouldn't do to leave Kagome alone on the ship, not with this pervert skulking around. Oh, wait, that's right, _Kagome_.

"Fine. I'll do it. But I'm taking her with me." He pointed over to where the girl was wrestling with a net and pretending not to eavesdrop.

"What? No!" Kouga drew up his eyebrows. "I know what you're thinking, doggy boy, but gifted women are walking gold, and she knows that. Even if she's human, there's no way scum like you'd ever have half a chance with her."

Inuyasha tensed and shifted position subtly, but Kouga noticed, mirroring his stance. "Oh, but I suppose she just can't wait to get it on with a mangy little wolf like you? Get real, scumbag. In your fucking dreams!"

Kouga laughed harshly. "So it's true! You _are_ panting after her!"

"How's that any of _your_ business, Wolfy? Afraid of a little competition?"

"In your dreams, dog-turd, in your dreams."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. So forget it."

"Keh."

Kouga flicked his claws. "Do I have to make my point clearer? You're getting on that boat right now, and she'll stay here with me and if you're not down there in one second I'll fucking help you down!"

"I'd like to see you try, wolf boy, really."

Kouga drew back his fist but halted halfway. "Stop it!"

Kagome had given up eavesdropping and stormed over, her face thunderous. Inuyasha flinched. One could almost feel sorry for the bastard; he was _so_ going to get it.

"This is outrageous!" she screamed. "You're such pigs, _both_ of you." She glared at Inuyasha.

"What?"

"Yeah, both of you. You're arguing over me like I'm a piece of meat, while I'm standing right next to you, no less. Does it get anymore chauvinistic? You're making me sick."

"Cho-what?" Kouga squeaked. "What are you- eh?"

"Hah!" Inuyasha laughed. "Not so cute now, when that spunk's directed at you, eh?"

"Shut up!" Inuyasha fought a persistent urge to whimper. Gods, what was her _problem_? He'd just been trying to defend her, for fuck's sake. Kagome took several deep breaths. Inuyasha and Kouga watched anxiously. "Alright listen. About this sh- nonsense you've been arguing about," she turned to Kouga and _smiled_. "I would like to go off board for a while. As you may recall, there's something wrong with the water in two of our barrels. Since we don't know how long it's going to be until we next have the chance, it might be a good idea to refill here. I could do that while he is investigating," she proposed, docilely, and Inuyasha hardly had time to feel smug before Kouga leered and threw an arm around her shoulders.

"You've a point, woman, certainly. But I don't trust the dog turd, I'm sorry. He can do that by himself, with the water. You stay right here where I can see you."

Inuyasha's knuckles itched to embed themselves in that asshole's stomach. He barely restrained himself, but only because Kagome carefully but determinedly peeled off that arm. Then he almost lost it again when she cocked her head with a freaking _pout_ and said, "Oh but I'd really like to have some solid ground under my feet again, even if only for a short while." And then she blinked and went "Please?" and Inuyasha felt the skin on his palms give when his fists clenched. So it was an outrage for him to defend her but alright for her to, to _whore_ herself out like that! That wolf was going to get it. If not now, then later.

Kouga blushed and sighed. "Oh alright. Whatever. Go with him," and, turning to Inuyasha whose claws were slowly reddening, "But I hear one word about you misbehaving and I don't care how much of an asset to my crew you might be, you're dead." He stomped off.

Some guys lowered a lifeboat into the water with them and two large barrels inside and Inuyasha rowed off at the speed of light.

"What the hell is your problem?" Kagome asked, after an hour or so had passed to the sound of Inuyasha pulling the oars through the water with the brute force of anger. Gods but he was mad! Just, it wasn't only her he was mad at, but also himself. What did he think he was doing getting all riled up about that stinking wolf lusting after her? Whatever happened to apathy? He wanted a drink, no, ten. It didn't help in any way that his ears were squashed under a hat he was forced to wear so people wouldn't get suspicious.

"Nothing's my problem. What's _your_ problem? The way you're sucking up to that asshole you're only encouraging him. Don't you see that?"

She blushed furiously. "There was no other way! I wanted off that stupid boat, I want a proper bath, I want to eat some fruit again. I wanted to get away."

Inuyasha growled, growing inexplicably madder at her whiny words.

"I... I didn't want you to leave me alone," Kagome mumbled, and Inuyasha's anger, not exactly evaporated, but the oars were no longer in imminent danger of snapping in two, at least.

"I didn't want to leave you alone there, either," he said, and bit his tongue. Damn that girl and his compulsion to say dumb stuff to cheer her up. She smiled. Inuyasha's guts twisted. This was going to be one long merry little boat ride.

They argued again, after landing someplace close enough to the seaside city that was their destination. Kagome insisted that he should go on alone while she filled the barrels, but Inuyasha was having none of that nonsense. Even when it became clear that she really just wanted to wash herself in the river in peace.

"Look, woman. You wanted to take a real bath, right?" and he pulled some doubloons from his pocket. "They're not expecting us back before tomorrow, so we'll check into an inn, you'll get your stupid bath, I get my- I'll do the investigation, alright?"

"Where'd you get those?" she asked, typically unable to just accept something convenient without nagging. Inuyasha sighed.

"Wolf boy gave them to me," and at her drawn up eyebrows, "No, of course not. I took them some time ago, from the storage room. Oh, come on. Don't give me that look. It's booty. It's stolen anyway. What's wrong with stealing from the thief? No, don't answer. Just get going."

She smiled. Whatever.

The city turned out to be fucking huge and exactly the cultural potpourri Inuyasha expected from the crossover style of the pirates' ships. There was definitely a flair that reminded him of what he recalled of 1920s Tokyo, but also an air of something Portuguese, somehow, and a bit, of course, out of every pirate film he'd ever seen. While Port Oogami, which had turned out to be something of a home base to the youkai pirates, had been blanketed in snow, Port Hakume was just wetly cold, but not freezing, a thing which Inuyasha was not completely unthankful for. His counterpart's feet were apparently not as numb to the cold as the wolves', and there wasn't a single pair of shoes to be found on the whole ship, apart from tiny silk slippers, of which there was a startling abundance in a box somewhere.

They checked into an inn at the dockside, and, as Kagome almost danced to the baths, Inuyasha almost sprinted to the bar, which was promisingly packed with men of the maritime persuasion. Of course, in order to mingle and investigate, it was imperative that he order a few drinks, for whoever he talked to, and for himself. Leave it to Kagome to totally not get that. She came down what must have been several hours later, swaying a bit from bathing so long, smelling fresh but scowling fiercely. And he was hardly even drunk at all, plus, he'd found out loads.

"S'not on the main island, where the birds are," he explained, eager to divert Kagome, pulling out a chair for her to sit on, "but on the one with the volcano. Talk about a cliché evil overlord volcanic lair."

Something like a smile flickered over her face too fast to be sure, then the scowl was back and she sat down. "'nything else?"

" Most of those guys are scared shitless of the birds. They all say how the birds are doing them a great service, and how it's so much safer to travel, but you can see it in their faces, they're afraid. Not that I blame them, those things are wicked."

"Whoever stands behind 'em is, that's for sure. I wish you coulda felt what I felt that day. 's madness."

Inuyasha grumbled noncommittally. Now that she was all bathed and rosy cheeked, Kagome attracted quite a few interested glances. Inuyasha felt his patience slip, especially with that fellow standing at the bar, who looked just about ready to walk over. There was but one logical thing to do. Inuyasha grabbed the carafe of wine and the trouble magnet girl and stomped up to the room they'd rented.

"What wasat about? What's your problem now, dammit?" Kagome groused, but Inuyasha didn't feel like answering. He didn't actually much feel like asking himself that question. So he slunk down onto his futon and turned his back to her, praying for a sudden loss of consciousness.

"'m talkin' t'you, damnit!" She crawled up and pulled at his shoulder.

"Tough, I'm not talking to you,." he snapped back, feeling wretched when her hand flopped off and she sighed. "T'was no place for a woman to hang around, down there," he explained.

She snickered. What the hell? "You. You're really a bit ofa chauv'nist, you know? 'r maybe just old-fashioned." He turned around to glare incredulously, but yeah, she was grinning.

"M'not," he protested, half-heartedly. Not like he gave much of a damn about whether he was.

"Yes y'are, with all that talk 'bout protection, and bein' all possessessive and stuff," she giggled.

He sat half up and looked at her properly, taking in the still rosy cheeks, the mussed hair and the glassy eyes. "Are you drunk?" he blurted out. What the hell?

She frowned. "Dunno. They were handin' out these funny lil' drinks in the baths, but I thought it was jus' fruit juice."

"Oh shit."

"Nah," she wobbled her hand soothingly. "S'alright. I can kinda understand why you're doing it aller the time. S'like everything's packed in cold jelly, and veeeery far away. I can think of my mama, just like that, and she's so jellily and far away that-" her face scrunched up, "that it doesn't mahahatter...ah," she hiccuped, and Inuyasha lunged for the wine. She was crying and he was not drunk enough to cope. This was going to be a long night.

O

Inuyasha woke, assessed the situation quickly, almost threw up from panic, and then set out to carefully, _carefully_ extract his face from between two small but warm and thankfully clothed breasts. He had almost completely untangled their legs when Kagome stirred. Inuyasha froze. She opened her red and bleary eyes, and groaned throatily.

"Who are you?" she whispered, but then she snorted. "Gods, what the hell was _in_ those drinks? I mean I only had three and-oh, gods." She rose abruptly and threw her arms about, eyes still closed. "Give me a bucket or something Ohgods, ohgods."

Not in the best of shape himself, he was several seconds too late, but convinced Kagome that they could just leave it like that and get the hell back to the ship. He paced up and down in front of the baths she insisted on visiting a second time, browsing through his memories of last night but finding, thank the gods, nothing out of the ordinary. Much crying on Kagome's part, much helpless back-patting on his. Rather a lot of very scatterbrained conversations, jumping from mothers being very great beings indeed to why fish-guts were like, ew, to whether or not cats were better than dogs. OK, that part was borderline suicide prompting but she probably didn't remember, and then to… Oh fuck. Please don't let her remember that part.

"Your eyes," she'd slurred, leaning in wobbly, "Did I tell you they're a diffrent color each?"

For some reason, maybe all that talk about dogs which was a tetchy subject to him, this made him _really_ angry. "That's jusso typical!" he'd cried, "I mean, have ya noticed? If y'ask me, what they've been sayin' 'bout how the coun'erparts can turn out all kindsa diff'rent ways is total bullshit, s'wat it is. It's all prete, predestined. Like, my soul's just condemned t'be a complete monstrous freak, justas yours always turns out fucking beautiful, and someone dare go 'n tell me that's not fucking unfair!"

There'd been horrible, endless seconds of silence, during which they competed about who could turn the nicest cherry red the quickest, then Kagome smiled tentatively and said, "I's going to say it looks really cool." She passed out a little later, and it wasn't until then that Inuyasha could breathe again.

Now he wanted to whack his head against the wall but there was something unholy thrumming in his brain and he thought better of it, no matter how much in need of a bit of self mutilation he obviously was. Kagome stepped out of the bath and as they went down to have breakfast and payed for the room and walked back to the boat and filled the keg with spring water and shoved the boat into the sea and got on and rowed towards the ships, Inuyasha observed Kagome closely for any sign that she might recall last night's events, but apart from a few groans and huffing she was very quiet, which might or might not have been a good thing.

It was a good thing Kouga could be trusted to make a scene when they arrived back, because all that anxiety wound up every single nerve in Inuyasha's borrowed body ready to burst. He hardly listened to what the idiot said, something about staying too long, understandably, something about how she smelled, certainly, something about how he smelled, probably, something about killing him, that's what he was waiting for. Heedless of Kagome's cries of protest he threw himself onto the wolf and they rolled over the deck, clawing and punching, making the crew scatter aside like headless chickens. By the time Kagome jumped in between and they were pried apart by a braver bunch of pirate youkai, Inuyasha felt refreshed and relaxed, if a bit sore. Idiot wimp and all, that wolf threw a mean left hook.

"Nothing happened, dammit!" Kagome yelled at Kouga, "Calm down!" Inuyasha snickered when Kouga's tail disappeared between his legs. "And you!" Kagome turned on him, eyes aflame, and Inuyasha was glad he didn't have a tail, "You know nothing happened! Why didn't you just explain that? Why do you _always_ have to punch before you talk?" She threw up her arms in exasperation. "I'm so sick of your stupid testosterone fueled brawls. It's ridiculous. Grow up. Leave me alone, I've a headache." She stomped off.

At least, Inuyasha thought, picking himself off the deck playing the 'Your fault' – 'No, your fault' game with Kouga, there was no mention of the dreadful things he'd babbled about last night. But, somehow, seeing the wolf youkai flinch every time the crack of a door being slammed sounded from the belly of the ship, that was not much of a consolation. Seeing Kouga skulk away, tail trembling, was, though. It did something remarkable to parts of him to see how Kagome seemed to have lost that stupid, hackle raising timidity when it came to the wolf. Although that might just as well have been the hangover speaking. Now, where'd she run off to, anyway?

He was lucky, damn lucky, she was in such an unbearable mood that he gave up hanging around her long before sundown and went brooding between the water barrels, because that night he was quite painfully reminded that this body, like his own, was only half youkai. The monthly evil; for his counterpart here, it came a few days after half-moon, best keep it in mind. Who knew how long they'd have to run around in this dimension, after all. He spent the night between the gently sloshing water barrels, hating his life, hating demon parents who were so stupid as to have children with humans, and most of all hating that sulky girl somewhere up there, for making him think that maybe he would have been able to sleep if she'd been around.

O

Halfway through the following week, and two thirds, if the pirates could be trusted, of their way to the Sheian Islands, the weather changed from windy to worse. Inuyasha woke to the sound of hurried scurrying, and found, when he got up to see, the ship in anxious excitement, taking down sails and lashing everything to the deck that could not be brought inside. The lee sky was the color of lead, blotched with mean purple. "It's one of the fast ones," he was curtly enlightened, when he asked why they hadn't foreseen this tempest. "You should know, these are your former waters after all." At which he babbled about know-it-all brats and went looking for Kagome.

She was in the galley, helping with breakfast and smiling when he came in. He told her about the storm but she knew already, and did not seem too worried, which began to get on Inuyasha's nerves after a while, so he beat it. He trailed about the ship but apparently there wasn't much to be done, except hoisting the storm sails and hoping for the best. When the edge of the storm hit them it looked like they hadn't hoped insistently enough. The worried expressions on the faces of experienced sailors told him as much. That, and he lost his balance about a million times on his way to Kagome's rice-cabin. She was inside, huddled in the blankets and not so cheerful now. In fact, when he sat down on the deck with a grunt of greeting, he saw that she was more than a little pale around the nose.

"Seasick?" he asked, almost managing to make it sound unconcerned, mocking.

She nodded, weakly. "The normal swaying I got used to after a while, but this..."

He shrugged. "Don't close your eyes and maybe if you look out the port? It always helps me to look at something far away, the horizon, at best."

She groaned faintly. "Nah, it's OK as long as I absolutely don't move." Then she frowned quizzically. "Have you been traveling by boat before? Because what you just said-"

"Yeah," he nodded, easing down onto his back to look at the ceiling. "I worked on a ship after I was in America, 'cause I was completely skint and, well, I didn't really know where to go next. It was a freaking enormous freighter that shipped cars from Asia to America and back. S'where I met that guy, did I tell you, who I knew in Germany? He was doing some weird ass work and travel stuff, but had gotten into a bit of, you know, trouble with drugs, and really wanted to go home but couldn't fly, of course. I don't think any of the workers on that ship were licensed, so it was a good way to get out of the country, if you were outlawed anyway. And since he was so eager to get there, I got curious about Germany and tagged along. We traveled across the whole of Asia, and Europe, hitchhiking, going by foot, that kind of stuff."

"Wow." He looked at Kagome and she laughed silently. "That's what I always wanted to do after school, sometime. Travel around the world. Pops always said he'd take me."

"Well, why not. Once we've got this shard business cleared, he can still do that, right?" he said, because she sounded so wistful.

"He died when I was seven."

"Shit."

She laughed again. "Well. I've got my mum. Not that I don't miss him, but... And Souta. Sometimes... You know, he was born after Pops died, and sometimes I wonder, is it better that way, because that way he won't miss him, or worse, because he never knew him?"

"Worse."

She turned around to face him. "You sound awfully sure of that."

"It's like that for me. My father died when I was born. And when I was younger I used to hate never having known him. I also hated my brother, because he had."

"You have a brother?"

"Half. He's full youkai."

"Oh. What's he like?"

"I don't know, really. I only saw him a few times when I was little. I haven't seen him since I awoke again. Dunno if he's still alive, but he's tough, maybe he is." She tensed when he mentioned the ban, but Inuyasha really didn't want to talk about that, so he barged on, "But your brother's not alone, right? He's got you, and your mum, and, who was that, your grandfather? He'll be fine. It's not like you really need a father to grow up. I didn't."

Kagome smiled. "Thank you."

"Whatever."

The ship lurched harder, and Kagome squealed, then they lay in silence for a while.

"What about your mother, then?" she asked suddenly, and Inuyasha cursed himself for not having ended the conversation before they strayed into personal subjects. "I mean, from what I remember of that crazy night at the inn, you seemed awfully fond of her."

Inuyasha's stomach churned, and not from the swell. Oh fuck. If she remembered that, did she also remember that other part? "She died when I was four. Natural causes, it was said. Dunno 'bout that. I think she never really got over the old man dying on her," he answered, suddenly willing to tell he the most intimate stories from his childhood if only she wouldn't remember, oh fuck.

"And what was she like?"

He looked briefly over to her, then to the ceiling again. "Dunno. A mum, you know?" _You remind me of her_. _I'll have to kill myself the day you find out_.

"I can imagine." He could hear her smile.

They talked like that, as the storm waged, lazy conversation drifting here and there, but nowhere Inuyasha felt really uncomfortable with (apart from the fact that when she laughed at something he said he felt very dumb.) The light went out after a while but neither felt like relighting it.

Inuyasha woke to a loud bang. He glanced around in the almost darkness dizzily for a while, starting when another bang came. It was the door to the room, it was open and swinging with the movements of the ship, which had, while Inuyasha was asleep, gotten a lot more forceful.

"You alright there?" He asked the fur-heap, remembering Kagome's seasickness. She didn't answer, probably still asleep, too. He lay down, breathing out. Suddenly he sprang into the air, cursing. The open door and the too silent room; she'd gone outside, the stupid girl!

He hit the wall opposite the room, so fast did he sprint out. At the slightest inclination of the handle, the door to the deck burst open, and he was immediately completely drenched. He pressed outside, against the wind, peering into the darkness and holding on tight to the door frame. The storm had definitely gotten worse. Hardly any sails were up anymore, whether on purpose or ripped off he could only guess. And there was no one an deck, although Inuyasha entertained the buccaneerish idea that the helmsman was still active, dramatically bound to the wheel. But, where was Kagome?

"Inuyasha?" came her voice, but from behind him. He turned abruptly, too abruptly. When the ship gave another mighty lurch, his hands slipped off the door frame and he only barely saw Kagome, standing in the corridor looking petrified, before he slid away over the wet deck.

"Inuyasha!"

He threw out his arms for anything to hold on to, but found nothing, at first. His neck cricked when he was thrown over his own back, and it was sheer luck the claws of his right hand caught in an unevenness in the deck. He jammed his hands through the planks, ignoring the splinters and catching his breath.

"Inuyasha!" Through the sheets of water obscuring his view he thought he saw Kagome's head in the door.

"NO!" he screamed, hoping his voice would carry against the wind, "Stay inside!"

It hadn't. She came further out and was flung away when another mighty lurch threw the ship the other way 'round. Inuyasha ripped his claws out of the deck and slid after her, hitting the opposite railing milliseconds after she was thrown over it. Her scream faded in the dark gray. Inuyasha didn't think. He jumped.

There was no up, no down, just water, water everywhere, crashing down on him with the weight of elephants and catapulting him up in too quick succession. He was thrown against the ship and held on with his claws, taking a breath, abruptly interrupted by another wave, and stared and stared and stared, coughing. Another scream, then a flash of something lighter, not so far to his left. He lunged, putting the whole of his hanyou strength into it. His knee collided with her head, and she was out cold, which, Inuyasha thought as he grabbed her, was probably a good thing. He could barely make out the shape of the ship disappearing into the dark. It was too bad that swimming was not one of his strengths. It had to be, now. A wave, higher than a house, threw them upwards and then pulled them under. Inuyasha swam on, legs kicking at lightning-speed and free arm heaving mightily. His back felt near snapping when they were thrown against the rudder, but Inuyasha payed it no heed. He held on. Kagome stirred in his arms, then coughed. Inch by inch he pulled them upwards, through several close calls when the rudder flapped around, until they were under a lifeboat. He threw her up into it and followed, grabbing her again and swinging them both up onto the roof of the deck house. His claws dug into the railing as she coughed up dark water. There was indeed someone at the wheel, but he hadn't noticed them and since it was the fucking wolf Inuyasha was glad of it. The ship swayed but he'd be damned if he let her out of his grasp before they were safe inside. He dragged them along the railing, crouching low and holding tight every time another wave threw the ship around, and got them past the yelling wolf-wimp and into the cabin in a feat of the strength he thought would leave him, every second of the way. It didn't.

He laid her down gently on the furs, but didn't let go, couldn't let go, who knew what she'd get up to if he did?

"Inuyasha?" she asked weakly, and he drew away a bit to look at her. There was blood on her face from a gash at the brow, and she reeked faintly of sick. So, that was why she'd gone. But, that was no excuse for why she'd gone after him outside, in the middle of a freaking storm! Gods, this girl, she was driving him mad! How could anyone be that stupidly reckless? What did he matter, compared to her safety? Fuck, she was so stupid! Such a foolish little girl, such a, such a dumb fuck!

It made, therefore, absolutely no sense that instead of telling her all that and more, he bent forward and kissed her, full on her puke soured lips.

OO

O

OO

A.N.: Ages, and then some, I know, and feel the according shame and guilt. But, you know, RL, HP, and stuff. Also, moo-ha-ha-ha, about that mean cliffhanger. I'll try and be a good little geek and pull that next chapter out of my head soon, promise.


End file.
